Friday SOS Record Reviews
Death Grips
Bottomless Pit (Third Worlds/Harvest)
By Kahron Spearman, Fri., Nov. 4, 2016
Radical rap, strained through absurdity and grotesqueness, Death Grips' fifth full-length effectively services – and disrupts – both punk and hip-hop. Abrasive starter "Giving Bad People Good Ideas," featuring Cherry Glazerr vocalist Clementine Creevy, leans into jagged, rusty knives electro paranoia. The swirling, somewhat low key (for Death Grips) Bottomless Pit finds MC Ride rapping in his speaking voice like a vintage Tricky minus the Bristol accent. Ride bangs on the opposition in drone-bass standout "Bubbles Buried in This Jungle," the Sacramento duo's mouthpiece blurting, "Fuck weak, no respect, no chance." Bottomless Pit is Grips' best and most accessible work since legend-making The Money Store. (Fri., 7:55pm, Dragon's Lair stage)