Death Grips is an experimental multi-genre group from Sacramento, CA, formed in 2010. Their music and live performances consist of vocals from Stefan “MC Ride” Burnett and production from Zach Hill and Andy Morin. They released their first mixtape, Exmilitary on April 25, 2011, with their most popular song, Guillotine, on that project. Early in the following year, they signed to Epic Records, and released their first studio album, The Money Store. They teased their second studio album via an ARG in August of that year, but Epic didn’t want them to release the album yet. They did anyway, leaking it themselves, naming it No Love Deep Web, and getting dropped from Epic as a result. They started their own label in 2013, called Third Worlds, and surprise-released Government Plates on November 13 of that year. June 8, 2014 saw the release of the first half of The Powers That B On July 2nd, 2014, the band officially announced their disbanding via a note on their Facebook page, but promised the second half of The Powers That B to be released. It leaked as Jenny Death on March 19, 2015, and the entire album was released officially on the 31st. On October 21, 2015, they announced they ‘might make some more’ music together, and released a new album, Bottomless Pit in 2016. Their latest album, Year of the Snitch, was released in 2018.

The band’s music has been described as punk rock, hip-hop, noise, industrial, and electronic. Their sound ranges from minimalistic and trunk-rattling heaviness (such as on “No Love”), to rapping about dark subjects over heavily distorted samples (like on “I’ve Seen Footage”). They have also released two entirely instrumental albums, Fashion Week and Interview 2016, which feature abrasive and violent electronic beats and some guitars.

Frontman Stefan Burnett’s violent and cryptic lyrics draw inspiration from a struggle both against himself and against the world at large, focusing on themes of individualism, paranoia, mental illness, drug use, occultism, and the emotionally degenerative nature of modern society.