Death Grips - Exmilitary — EMMIE MAGAZINE

BY OLIVER GERHARZ

Sunday School takes another look at a classic album worth revisiting years after its release. EMMIE staff handpick releases that shaped a genre, defined a generation or deserve a little more recognition. Keep up with Sunday School for your weekly dose of dusted-off classics + throwbacks that merit a second spin.

As someone who has been a huge fan of Death Grips for years, I was excited to see their debut mixtape on Spotify - even if it is uploaded by a third party as a podcast. I had known about it, but hadn’t given it a listen until then because it isn’t uploaded officially on streaming services.

Now that I’ve heard Exmilitary, I’m totally enamored with it. The album loosely follows an exmilitary addict who experiences delusions of grandeur.

This shines through strongest on the track I Want It I Need It (Death Heated) which was originally released as Where’s It At (Death Heated) on their eponymous EP. In this song MC Ride sings about going out to get high and have sex with the first “hot one” he sees. The actions MC Ride describes offers an insider perspective as critique on a modern hedonistic lifestyle, coming to a head as the line “Responsibility’s cool, but there’s more things in life. Like getting your dick rode all fucking night.” plays over a momentarily toned-down instrumental.

The mixtape’s only single, Guillotine, which has remained on streaming services unlike the other songs on the mixtape, is the standout from the album. As a pioneer track for the sort of thick texture and cutting vocals that Death Grips songs are known for, I’m not surprised that it’s stuck around as a mainstay song for Death Grips fans.

The popularity of Guillotine makes me wonder if the other songs on the album would be as noteworthy had they also remained on streaming services. I really appreciated the odd text to speech sample on Culture Shock, and the feature from Liz Liles on Lord of the Game (Ft. Mexican Girl) was great, especially since features on Death Grips songs are so rare. Lord of the Game is also awesome for the theme, focusing on feelings of superiority while touching of other themes like drugs and paranoia.

Thru The Walls is another song that fills out the album very well, though there are, of course, no misses. It makes great use of a sample from Space is the Place, a 1973 song off of an album of the same title by Sun Ra. Samples like these are exactly what makes the album so great and so inaccessible on streaming services.

Hearing Death Grips near the start of their exploration of the harsh electronic noise that they are known for is really special. This mixtape was a very strong early entry for Death grips into the hip-hop world. In the greater scheme of their work it’s definitely secured a spot as one of my favorites, up there with the likes of The Money Store and Year of the Snitch.