Gripped Up

Remember when Death Grips' ExMilitary came out and your mind was totally melted by MC Ride spitting goddamned fire over Zach Hill's punk-influenced beats? I, perhaps like you, was totally hooked. But they only had one album. I needed a methadone to help alleviate the lack of Death Grips heroin. One of the things I found was Skywlkr & Black Noi$e's appropriately-titled ExExMilitary: an album using the acapellas and instrumentals that Death Grips had made available. While it was fun to hear the songs off of ExMilitary recontextualized, the beats that Skywlkr and Black Noi$e use just....don't really fit with MC Ride's barking, intense delivery. But for whatever reason, the last track on the album, "Gripped Up," works despite that. That beat kind of slithers behind the acapella, giving the track an almost Dr. Dre/G-funk feel. This track will probably find it's way onto my upcoming summer mixes (whereas actual Death Grips songs may turn lazy backyard pool parties into drunken broken bottle fights).