Last year, the trio made up of MC Ride, Flatlander, and Zach Hill "pulled a Beyoncé" before "pulling a Beyoncé" was a thing. Out of nowhere, they released an eleven track album entitled Government Plates, which already had videos for each song. I'm still mad at myself for not giving that a track-by-track review (though I did write more than a few paragraphs about it if you'd like to see my thoughts), but long story short, it was a different direction that was looked fondly upon, although most fans were upset with the alarming lack of vocals, which are kind of what made Death Grips blow up in the first place.
And that they didn't do it alone.
Instead of calling upon another rapper (not that I would really expect that to happen, but it felt more likely than what I'm about to say), Death Grips looked to Björk, an Icelandic singer who holds one of the most important and recognizable voices from the past twenty years. That sounds great and all, and I'm certainly a fan of her work, but her involvement garnered a collective "huh" from the group's fanbase. The pairing begins to make a little more sense when you realize that Björk has been touring with the three over the past few years, which is still weird as hell when you think about it. Also, there would be no original contributions, but rather vocal samples that serve as more of an instrument. And yes, before it gets awkward when the track actually rolls around, there's a song called "Have A Sad Cum".
Once again, I say: huh?
1. Up My Sleeves
Zach and Flatlander's instrumental is all over the damn place, but it's constant shifts of sounds is more than welcome. At first, its surprisingly toned-down, which differs from every other opening track on a Death Grips project (they usually like to hit you in the face), but it comes in a somewhat welcoming way. After that, though, the track goes on for about five minutes, and never settles, for three consecutive seconds, into comprehensibility. Think about the speed at which your mind seizes on and processes even the tiniest scrap of recorded music—we ID big pop songs from their opening seconds, they are specifically engineered to make sure we can do so. Now think about the harrowing intensity required to throw off our relentless pattern-seeking ears off balance for that long. "Up My Sleeves" is Death Grips operating at their sensory peak, a falling-elevator-shaft collision of recorded sounds that interrupt each other ceaselessly. MC Ride is also at his peak. His cryptic writing is among his best work in his career, which should be comforting to fans who were disappointed with his input on their last work. I couldn't have imagined a better way for Niggas on the Moon to start.
2. Billy Not Really
Oh, there's the Björk sampling. I'm sure they were somewhere on the intro, but they really shine on this song. The first thing you'll realize about this track is that Ride completely restrains himself from yelling, which may sound great to you all, but I'm not sure how I feel. Its good to see him experimenting with different flows, and he sounds pretty good on here, but I just don't want it to become that consistent of a theme. His menacing presence is what made their earliest projects so damn incredible. His delivery does give the listener more time to focus on his words, though. When he wants, Ride can deliver the lyrical depth of an Aesop Rock and he's a very talented writer, whether you want to believe it or not. This doesn't top the opening track, but realistically, how could it?
3. Black Quarterback
Although I found MC Ride's use of the term "black quarterback" (which supposedly shows his versatility) to be very humorous, I could appreciate a little more intensity. The beat isn't all that distinctive but not bad, and Björk's sample gives it a real haunted feeling. This song's biggest strength, though, comes in it hook, which marks the first phrase you'll be repeating in your head throughout your day (if you've ever heard a Death Grips album, don't even pretend like that shit doesn't get stuck in your head). People have already made the assumption that the lyrics refer to Kanye West, but just like on "Birds", I highly doubt that's the case; I doubt they fucking care. Either way, this was cool enough.
4. Say Hey Kid
While I was disappointed to find out that this was not, in fact, a song dedicated to Willie Mays, I still found this to be one of the most interesting lyrical performances on the album. One of the reasons I've always appreciated Death Grips is their ability to leave their songs open to interpretation without coming off as vague. On this song, is Ride talking about overdosing on heroine? Being a monster? Is it a reference to the album title? There's valid claims to support all three ideas, but either way, it sounds pretty damn good. One thing I've really noticed on this album is that MC Ride's calm delivers can be even scarier than him yelling at the top of his lungs, and at some points, "Say Hey Kid" just comes off really fucking sad. So many emotions.
5. Have A Sad Cum
It almost disappoints me that this isn't my least favorite song on the album, but this ended up being excellent. The good people at Rap Genius had this to say about the lyrics: "All the sex that Ride describes never involves love, or any emotion. His orgasms are never happy, because he is not happy." That's all I have to say about that because the real reason this song works is the genius sampling of Flatlander. Björk's voice sounds fantastic and the occasional yell of "have a sad cum, baby" actually makes for one of the most melodic songs in their catalog. The instrumental is very atmospheric as well, seemingly building upon the themes addressed in Government Plates and adding a bit of No Love Deep Web for good measure. Nice!
6. Fuck Me Out
Ah man. This song sucks. The instrumental, although a bit bland, is serviceable, but I just can't say that I'm at a point in my life where I want to hear a sexual Death Grips song. I've always thought of MC Ride as asexual, so hearing him fake an orgasm during a song is all kinds of uncomfortable. Is this a metaphor? Possibly, and I'd honestly say probably, but there comes a point where none of that shit even matters. Moving on...
7. Voila
Wasn't really feeling this one either. Show of hands: how many of you guys wanted to hear MC Ride say "viola" at the end of nearly every single bar? No one? Oh, one guy that's clearly just messing with me? Well, fuck you, asshole: "Viola" features just that. Over a beat that doesn't really give that much of an effort of differentiate itself, Ride paints himself as some sort of rapist-physco-pedophile-sexual abuser while saying the track's name like twenty times. All I can really imagine is him performing some pretty cool magic tricks while dancing around in a clown costume. I'm also getting somewhat tired with the Björk sampling, which isn't to say its especially bad on this song, but I'm just a little done with it all together. Sigh.
8. Big Dipper
The fact that Stephan Burnett (MC Ride) utters the words, "I'm a shitty stripper" makes this entire project worthwhile, but it also helps that this song is really damn good. I'm not sure how I feel about Stephan's singing about mid-way through, but the rest of his performance is among the catchiest material they've made since The Money Store. The song gradually works into a giant musical crescendo, making the best out of Björk's sampling and Zach Hill's masterful drum playing, which I haven't complemented nearly enough throughout this write-up. Death Grips have always ended their albums on extremely high notes, and I'm happy to say that this is not an anomaly.
I'm not going to give this a proper rating at the moment, as I feel it would be completely unfair to judge a project on only its first half. As a whole, though, I found Niggas on the Moon to be an interesting listen. Most of the songs lack any real compositional structure and the Björk sampling is really hit or miss, but most importantly, six of the eight songs were entertaining, and that's more than enough to keep me anticipating the second half of this album. MC Ride has never been writing better than he is right now, and even though I'm not the biggest fan of him experimenting with different flows (almost every song features a different delivery), I'll give him his time to prove his versatility (I'm so proud of myself for not saying "black quarterback" in this sentence). The project as a whole may suffer from forcing the Björk samples, but her voice adds a unique element that separates these eight songs from the rest of the crew's work. As a whole, this feels like a healthy mix of Government Plates and The Money Store, and I'll be returning to it throughout the year. Hope I didn't come off as too much of a Stan during this write-up.