clipping.
CLPPNG
Sup Pop
10 June 2014
4.5 stars out of 5
One of the cool things about clipping., the Los
Angeles-based hip hop group that employs huge amounts of noise and distortion,
and often raps over completely beatless tracks, is that they see themselves as
just a regular hip hop band. Musically, their sound is harsh, sometimes
entering Merzbow territory for (thankfully) short moments, as William Hutson
dials up the noise. At other times they embrace a more industrial sound, but
comparisons to Death Grips are misguided—DG’s MC Ride delivers his raps as if
he wants to kill everyone in the club multiple times, whereas MC Daveed Diggs
of clipping. is always chill, even while describing gangland murders.
When Hutson and Jonathan Snipes decide to ease up on the
harshness, they come up with some textures that are simultaneously unsettling
and beautiful, such as the thumb piano-like percussion of “Work Work.” On the
atmospheric stream-of-consciousness “Dream,” Diggs doesn’t rap but rather
recites, and his poem contains all of the tension of urban life. “Get Up” is
the alarm clock (literally) telling you that it’s time to end your societal
slumber and start opening your eyes to reality. Everywhere is evidence that
clipping. construct their songs in the service of the lyrics, rather than the
typical practice of creating beats on which to drop essentially interchangeable
rhymes. Tracks like “Story 2” and “Ends” are constructed around Diggs’s words
without consideration for club play, putting clipping.’s compositions on a
level far above the vast majority of artists today, regardless of genre.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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