#3: Death Grips' Exmilitary

The third installment of the December writing exercise.

What better way to introduce Death Grips to the world than a speech by none other than Charlie Manson himself? He talks of turning away from the binds of materialism for the power and fulfillment that he possesses in himself. While you generally hear this as a positive story of self-worth and dignity when espoused by most people, coming from Mr. Manson— a murderer/cult leader/MK Ultra stooge— the meaning is bastardized if nothing else. There is something far more dark and sinister in these words than your typical “resist greed!” platitude. Unbridled power is at the root of these words— power that ignores moral fortitude, instead indulging in an internal death drive by any means necessary.

This is where the mixtape lies. There is an overall theme of Freud’s death drive and the process of self-obliteration from the environment we have created. MC Ride talks about Alvin Toffler’s concept of future shock and information overload in “Culture Shock”, with lines like “Useless information occupies every open space inside your skull/You know what’s going on every day, every night” and “You speak in abbreviations because real life conversation moves too slow”. It seems Ride may have already suspected we’re all turning into Charlie Manson with a sort of MK Ultra process in the line “You’re the media’s creation, yeah, your' free will has been taken and you don’t know”. This could have been unintentional, however, as suspicions of Charlie Manson’s involvement with MK Ultra wouldn’t come out until years after this mixtape’s release.

This album sounds exactly as how one would imagine a project covering government psyops, cult leaders, and Freudian philosophy would sound. Scattered throughout, Zach Hill’s schizophrenic drumming and Andy Morin’s samplings that range from Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive to Half Life 2 sound clips to Black Flag’s Rise Above on “Klink” channel this isolated, manic energy spit from Ride’s boiled inflections. Tracks like “Guillotine” play like a forgotten file left on a stray cd scratched to unplayability, sitting in the bottom of an aged dumpster behind a dive-bar strip club. It is grimy, it is over the top, it is corrosive— it is also the track that shoved them into popularity, with something like 16 million views on Youtube at the time of writing.

While they seem to resist most of the fame they have been given, keeping very low and private profiles to this day, their popularity has only grown. It’s been reported by NME that David Bowie was inspired by the band while making Blackstar. They have been seen with celebrities like Robert Pattinson and Eric Andre, and have remixed tracks by Björk. Their influence has only grown, in part from their shroud of silence bringing mystery to who they really are and what makes them tick. It seems we may have gained the opportunity to see them in action, too.

After years of silence, they just announced a 2023 tour today. No one can tell what could come about from this, whether this is a tour for new music or just because. They often tour without a merch table and don’t generally partake in your typical practices that generate extra income. It started as an art project by three guys, and twelve years later it seems that they haven’t strayed away from that fact.