Biography
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Years Active
2010 – present (13 years)
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Founded In
Sacramento, Sacramento County, California, United States
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Members
- Andy Morin (2010 – present)
- Christian Oldham (2010 – 2011)
- Mexican Girl (2010 – 2011)
- Stefan Burnett (2010 – present)
- Zach Hill (2010 – present)
Death Grips are an experimental hip-hop group formed in Sacramento, California, United States in 2010. The group consists of Stefan Burnett aka Ride (vocals) and the production team Zach Hill and Andy Morin, often miscredited under the alias "Flatlander". Their live setup consists of Burnett on vocals, Morin on keyboards & laptop, and Hill on drums.
The group officially formed December 21, 2010, and released its first EP, self-titled "Death Grips". They also released their first single and music video, for "Full Moon (Death Classic)", only single of the self-titled EP, both on March 8, 2011. On April 26, 2011, they released their debut album, the mixtape Exmilitary. NBCNewYork.com called it "an intense, dark listen."
On February 27, 2012 Death Grips signed with Epic and released two albums the same year. The first official album, The Money Store, was released on April 24. Music videos were made for the singles "Blackjack," "Get Got," and "Fever (Aye Aye)." The track "Lost Boys" was also released alone with no video accompaniment.
After a month and a half long alternate reality game (ARG) involving the infamous deep web, Death Grips leaked the album No Love Deep Web on its website on October 1st, 2012, which caused the band to break contract with Epic. This also resulted in someone closing down the band's website, with the band saying it was done by the label, which Epic Records denied shortly.
On November 13, 2013, the band spontaneously made available their third LP within two years, Government Plates. The album was posted to their SoundCloud page and website, much like No Love Deep Web, but without any sort of lead up or prior hype, except one single, Birds released months beforehand, taking most listeners by complete surprise.
On June 8, 2014, Death Grips released the first half of a new double album featuring Björk, The Powers That B. Disc 1 is titled Niggas on the Moon, and features heavy sampling of Björk's vocal snippets. Disc 2 is titled Jenny Death.
On July 2, 2014, Death Grips announced on Facebook that they have canceled all tour dates, and are finished as a band, stating: "we are now at our best and so Death Grips is over. we have officially stopped. all currently scheduled live dates are canceled. our upcoming double album "the powers that b" will still be delivered worldwide later this year via Harvest/Third Worlds Records. Death Grips was and always has been a conceptual art exhibition anchored by sound and vision. above and beyond a "band". to our truest fans, please stay legend."
On January 4, 2015, the band self-released for free the instrumental album named "Fashion Week", with the song titles acrostically forming the phrase "JENNY DEATH WHEN", in reference of the confusion about the second The Powers that B disc. The cover image features Sua Yoo, which illustrated the iconic The Money Store album cover
On March 24, 2015, Death Grips announced a world tour, confirming the group is currently active. Their double album, The Powers That B was released officially on March 31, 2015, with the including of the second disc, Jenny Death.
On February 7, 2016 the single "Hot Head" from their upcoming album "Bottomless Pit" was dropped.
On March 13, 2016, a video was posted on their official channel of the band being interviewed by TV personality Matthew Hoffman. The original audio was removed and replaced with instrumentals made by the band, with the instrumentals being on March 22, released named as "Interview 2016", which was included on 2LP vinyl versions with Fashion Week.
On March 18, 2016, the band released more information about the upcoming album, Bottomless Pit. The front and back covers were shown as well as the tracklisting.
Bottomless Pit was released on May 6, 2016, with "Hot Head" and "Eh" as singles. Music videos were produced for "Eh" and "Giving Bad People Good Ideas".
On May 30, 2016, Death Grips released a new track, "More Than the Fairy" featuring musician Les Claypool.
On May 22, 2017, Death Grips announced they were working on a new album, while simultaneously releasing a track/mix entitled "Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix)", featuring 8 sections, which were named by fans as "My Whole Life", "Blood Like Bitch", "Intangible" (or "Rights of Passage"), "Bald Head Girl", "Come and Go", "Hi!", "Black Body", and "Steroids" (or "State of Drugs")
In March of 2018, the trio posted two photos on their Instagram account (@bbpoltergiest) stating that they were working on the new record with Andrew Adamson, the director of the Shrek series, and Justin Chancellor, the bassist from Tool.
On March 22, 2018, the band announced on their website (thirdworlds.net) that their new album "Year of the Snitch" was "coming soon…"
April 6, 2018, the cover artwork for "Year of the Snitch" is posted on the band's Facebook page.
On June 22nd, Year of the Snitch was released accompanied by five singles: Shitshow, Hahaha, Flies, Black Paint and Streaky. Rolling Stone would go on to name Black Paint song of the summer.
On April 13, 2019, at Record Store Day, the EP Steroids was released with previously YouTube exclusive tracks "More Than the Fairy" and "electronic drum solo dub mix (single take)".
On June 21, 2019, Death Grips broadcasted on the online radio NTS Radio, arguably their most chaotic and experimental EP and project of all time, "Gmail and the Restraining Orders", which itself is a soundscape for the opening of the band's live performances on the 2015 The Powers That B world tour, under no specific name.
On January 27, 2021, Gmail and the Restraining Orders is oficially released to music streaming services.
On July 17, 2023, electronic drum solo dub mix (single take) is released on streaming services.
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