Lyrics
I listen to a whole bunch of music and, while some of it is just
because I like it, a lot of the songs tend to mean something. One of the lyrics
that really comes to mind is “Fuck where you’re from, fuck where you’re going,
its all about where you’re at. This is the outro on the song “Lord of the Game”
from Death grips first mixtape Exmilitary. Death grips is an experimental hip
hop group from California. This is their first mixtape and is comparatively
not that weird, but it still has its strange tracks. The group's style is very
abrasive. From the drummer Zach hill smashing on drums so hard he frequently
breaks them to the lyrics of MC Ride being yelled so loud that they become hard
to understand.
Death Grips doubles down on most of the criticisms of hip
hop: it's too vulgar, loud, all it talks about is drugs and whatnot. Those
criticisms aren’t true for really any musician, but Death Grips definitely toes
the line. Their first studio album, The Money Store, takes this to the extreme,
and I'd start there if you wanted to listen to their music because it only
gets weirder from there.
Lots of their music is about living in the moment. The
characters in their songs rarely go about this in the healthiest ways. Songs
about murder and drug abuse don’t provide the greatest outlets for living in
the moment but the advice is still good for me as I tend to overthink things
and stress and worry. Sometimes it takes the extremely aggressive screaming of
MC Ride to remind me to live in the moment.
Life is really complicated but a lot of it just doesn’t
matter. Being ok with things not mattering and not taking everything seriously
is important and has always been hard for me. The “don’t care” attitude of
Death Grips is reflected in their unconventional and strange style of music
they make. Death Grips “Don’t care” attitude probably goes too far, I don’t
plan on living the lifestyle described in their songs, but I do plan on caring
a little less about unimportant things.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Exmilitary by Death Grips. I empathize with the notion that one should take a break from stressing about unimportant nonsense and broaden one's view of the world. Without a reevaluation of what's worth your effort and worrying over, one could easily lose sight of their greater dreams and goals. I can relate to listening to "strange music" to feel more at peace. I have also found running excessive amounts of miles to be beneficial to lowing stress levels, but that's not for everyone. Fine work.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I have not listened to anything by Death Grips but their music sounds really interesting. I liked how you praised them for their music about living on the moment but also acknowledged they might not be doing it in the healthiest ways.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that Death Grips is what was played for most of my car ride to the state cross country meet and while it was definitely not anything like anything I'd ever heard before, I can see why you would really appreciate it. I like that you point out that it doubles down on the criticisms of hip hop because I really like when people lean into criticisms of art. That was not a point made to me when Henry was blasting this, as you put it, abrasive music, but that makes me appreciate it a bit more.
ReplyDeleteI think that in a way messages are like Coca Cola syrup. It's made extremely concentrated so that when they're let loose in a sea of plain water, it's enough to make it taste like Coca Cola. Musicians probably face a dilemma in that there music may be good, but their message, and it's many nuances, may not be heard. I think something like that happened with Paul Ryan and Rage Against the Machine.
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