By CHAD BOSWELL
Staff Writer
On April 25th 2011, the hip hop group, Death Grips released their debut mixtape titled Exmilitary. This album was the first of many albums/mixtapes that would be released by the group and it would spark the rise of this band and their sci-fi type music that would bring a shocking but amazing beat to the listener. Death grips is a band that contains three members which are Stefan Burnett (also known as MC Ride), Zach Hill, and Andy Morin and these three formed the group in 2010 while in Sacramento. Death Grips did not originally become popular until 2012 when they released their most famous studio album The Money Store and ever since the release of that album they have been loved by fans all around the world.
Exmilitary is a very unique but amazing album, It was Death Grips first work and it was actually very good. Now let us dive into the genre of music Death Grips that makes them stand out from other bands. Experimental music is a genre of music that has a different sound than other genres, it consists of beats, vocals, and other things that you won’t hear in other music. Experimental music can most likely fit in well with Rap Music because in Death Grips MC ride is mainly rapping over this drum, electronic, sci-fi type beats, and those drums are provided by Zach Hill. Exmilitary takes the best of MC Ride´s vocals and puts them with the aspect of Experimental Music which makes the album exciting to listen to and just overall enjoyable.
Things that stand out from Exmilitary are obviously MC Ride´s way of singing and making music in general. The way he raps and the way he makes these songs sound is different from what I have ever heard and yes if you are listening to Death Grips for the first time it will be a lot different than things you will usually listen to. Death Grips take time to get into because of their genre of music, and yes most people will hate them at first but you have to give them a listen and let them grow on you. Death Grips is my favorite band and if you let them grow on you then you will find some of their music enjoyable.
There are a lot of enjoyable songs on Exmilitary like Klink, Beware, Guillotine, Spread eagle cross the block, Takyon, Thru the walls, and Known for it (but every song is good). MC Ride had really shown in this album what Death Grips are and what they’re capable of doing. MC Ride vocals and Zack Hills drumming is an unstoppable duo and it sounds amazing if you get yourself into listening to their songs. Exmilitary is the perfect debut album and not a bad place to start if you want to start listening to Death Grips.
In my honest opinion I would give this album a 10/10. This album is fantastic and sparks some of the art of different and underrated genres of music. Death Grips outdid themselves on this album and it really shows the limit music can be taken in the world. MC Ride has really outdone himself on this album when it came to his singing and carrying the album using that but also Zach Hill carried the album when it came to his drumming. This album is honestly amazing and even though Death Grips may not be enjoyable to a lot of people it does not hurt to listen to them.