Track Review: Death Grips - Birds

In a sense, an introduction to Death Grips is somewhat counterproductive. If you are already a fan, you should understand. If you are not, I strongly recommend giving them a listen. Birds is the group's first single since the release of their second major full length, No Love Deep Web. Death Grips are known for playing extremely unusual and abrasive hip hop. Really the only thing that makes their music hip hop is the fact that MC Ride's lyrics just so happen to rhyme. The most captivating aspect of Death Grips's music is their beats which tend to sound like experimental electronic noise. Birds begins with a scratchy, wobbly sample of a person repeating the words "I got, I got tomorrow coming". This sample is then accompanied by a fast drum beat from a sequencer. You can hear MC Ride say the title of the song once with the same echo effect used on some tracks of their album The Money Store. After a short period, the fast paced beat and sample section ends, and what sounds like a pitch shifted guitar sample comes in. This sudden change makes the song sound very eerie. Like the intro, the sample plays on its own for few seconds and is then accompanied by drums. The drums in this verse sound like they must have been performed by Death Grips drumer, Zach Hill. MC Ride raps very slow and hesitantly. All of the lyrics on this track are extremely vague which leads me to question whether there is really any meaning behind them at all. Birds is a decent track. All of Death Grips's material is very pleasing. In comparison to the rest of the group's work, this track is not so strong. I believe the value in this new material is not in the music itself, but the fact that Death Grips are still making music. Could this mean another Death Grips record is in the works? I hope so. 6.5/10.