By Chad Boswell
Staff Writer
On March 31, 2015 Death grips released their most interesting project titled “The Powers That B”. This album was released in two discs titled “Fellas on the Moon ” and “Jenny Death”. The first disc’s title isn’t actually Fellas on the moon but for the best let’s just call it that. This album is very interesting because it is one of their best and longest albums and that’s because it is a two-part album. Fellas on the Moon and Jenny Death both are very important parts of the album while Fellas on the moon is the more electronic sound side of The Powers That B, but Jenny Death is the more rock side of the project. Now let us dive into the History of Death Grips and the way they got here.
Death Grips are a band formed in Sacramento, California in 2010, and ever since they have been making interesting and enjoyable music up until 2018 in which they have taken a long hiatus. The Group consists of Lead Singer Stefan Burnett (Better known as MC Ride), Drummer and Co Singer Zack Hill, and Keyboard player, producer Andy Morin. These three have made a lot of music for people to enjoy. Out of all their projects, I would say Exmilitary and The Powers That B are my favorites but I personally love all of their albums. Those two are just my favorite, and I suggest anybody reading this checks out the Exmilitary album review I did.
The Powers That B’s first disc which is Fellas on the moon released on June 8th, 2014 but after that Jenny Death did not release until March 19th, 2015 and after that, the whole album was released on streaming services. This made a lot of fans upset and they asked when Jenny’s death was going to be released. Death Grips actually noticed this and in their instrumental album titled “Fashion Week” they have these songs that are all named Runway J, Runway E, Runway W, etc. and if you look at the tracklist all of the songs spell out JENNYDEATHWHEN which is obviously a reference to fans asking when the second disc of The Powers That B was going to be released.
Let’s talk about the actual album now, The Powers That B actually has a pretty cool album cover and an amazing theme and tracklist. The cover art for this album is actually this little object on the floor at an airport and they put the words “Death Grips” in scratch marks on the object and this is really just cool. The airport it was at is very unknown but people expect it was at either a UK airport or a Canada one but most people think it was at an airport in the UK for a tour. The thing I like about this album is that it’s perfect, it’s the perfect combination of their old albums into one. They use their electronic sound, rock sound, lyrical sound, etc all in this one album and it’s amazing, it’s actually perfect. There is really nothing I hate about this album, every song from this project is good it has no skips but some tracks that are my favorite are “Up My sleeves, Billy not really, Black Quarterback, Say Hey Kid, Big Dipper, I Break Mirrors with my face in the United States, Pss Pss, The Powers That B, On GP”. I like every song but those are my personal favorites especially On GP. On GP is my favorite Death Grips song of all time and I might have to make my own review on the song but that is for another time.
This album is honestly such a good album and one of the best from the 2010s. I would personally give this album a perfect/10 but if we are talking actual rating then I would easily give it a 10/10 without a doubt. Everything about The Powers That B is amazing and If I could listen to this album for the first time again I would over and over again, just everything about this album is perfect and to be honest I really suggest everybody listen to it even if Death Grips is not your thing. I really love this album and I sure do hope Death Grips do more like this in the future, that’s if they ever come back from their hiatus, we can only hope.