Industrial Hip-hop
I. Introduction: A Brief History
Industrial hip-hop, as the name would imply, is a blending of hip-hop with features of industrial music, both of which were independently becoming more and more prominent in popular culture by the early 90’s. The “golden age” of hip-hop, the late 80’s and early 90’s saw some massively influential rappers and groups like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Wu-Tang Clan come to prominence and are still regarded as incredibly important in hip-hop and popular music as a whole 30 years later. Around the same time, industrial rock bands like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and Nine Inch Nails were making waves in the underground rock scene. It was only a matter of time before the two styles would collide in the coming years. Into the 2010s, industrial hip-hop became more and more prominent to the point where it’s starting to bubble to the surface, but still cannot be considered mainstream.
II. Notable Artists
Some notable musicians who contributed to tishoumaren (desert blues) are outlined in the following section. As in the previous entries, my goal is to focus primarily on underrepresented, diverse musicians who were largely overlooked or marginalized in some way.
MC Ride (Stefan Burnett) – Death Grips
Stefan Burnett, known more commonly by his stage name, MC Ride, is currently the leading member of one of the more successful industrial hip-hop groups, Death Grips. He was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. Prior to the relative success they found in 2011 with Death Grips’ debut mixtape ‘Exmillitary’, Burnett performed with another experimental hip-hop group called Fyre under the alias Mxlplx along with his brother who used the name Swank and another Sacramento-based rapper, Young. G. When his brother got married and could no longer continue the group, they disbanded and Burnett pursued a career as a painter in the meantime. In 2010, he adopted the name “Ride” and formed Death Grips with he next door neighbour, Zach Hill who was known for drumming with the band Hella. Shortly after recruiting producer Andy Morin, they released ‘Exmillitary’ in 2011 which was released to widespread acclaim. Since then, Death Grips has released six studio albums and have become well-respected and revered in experimental and underground music circles. Their style sits rather ambiguously in the ballpark of hip-hop, punk rock, electronica, and noise but can generally be summed up as industrial hip-hop. A song of theirs that does a good job of exemplifying this chaotic blend of styles is ‘Anne Bonny’ from their 2013 album ‘Government Plates’ (see video below).
Reflection on ‘Anne Bonny’ (2013) by Death Grips:
This song has an interesting start. I mean where to even begin? It’s surprisingly minimalistic at the beginning with a really simple metronome-like beat, some simple synths, and a vocal line. Less than a minute in the song suddenly gets really gritty with this like razor-sharp, distorted synth-bass thing and a tempo shift, the beat itself sound completely distorted and the vocals become far more aggressive. I can’t begin to understand what MD Ride is rapping about here, but I know enough about Death Grips to understand that most of the lyrics are purposefully dark and violent. I really enjoy the interplay between the two parts of the song how it sounds almost euphoric for the refrains but the verses sound so sinister – it’s really hard to describe how the track makes me feel, but it’s definitely unsettling. Despite this, I love Death Grips. I’d highly recommend any of their albums, but ‘Government Plates’ is their most underrated in my opinion.
theOGM – Ho99o9
theOgm is one of the main two members of Ho99o9 (pronounced “Horror”), an industrial / punk rap duo group formed in 2012 in Newark, NJ. theOGM was raised in Linden, NJ. Prior to their formation, the members were heavily influenced by gasta rappers such as DMX and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony but began attending punk shows in Brooklyn which would influence them further. Ho99o9 is notable for their live sets where they wear all sorts of costumes including bridal gowns and fake nails, frequently changing costumes. They also use studio pre-recordings of guitars to help facilitate the more chaotic, free energy of their performances. Their debut album ‘The United States of Horror’ was released in 2017 which tackles racism and discrimination and other social issues, though the band does not want to be labelled as “political”. An excellent track from their debut album is ‘War is Hell’ (2017; see video below). This track really captures both the experimental, heavier rock elements and the clear hip-hop inspiration they fuse together in their music.
“It was our plan to do this before Trump was even elected. It’s about everything we’ve seen, from women and partying to racism and the way people of colour or gender are being treated. It’s f***ing in your face and real, and what we wake up to every day.”
– Eaddy, Ho99o9 (2017)
Reflection on ‘War is Hell’ (2017) by Ho99o9:
This song is fairly aggressive right out the gate. The vocals here are a bit more reminiscent of 90s industrial rock, like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The distorted synth base underlying the track is minimalistic but unsettling and the sharp percussion sounds like a trash can getting the crap beaten out of it. There’s so much noise here but I love it. The way the vocals get pitch shifted down at one point really add to the aggression and sense of impending doom of the track as a whole. As with the Death Grips, I can’t claim to understand the majority of the lyrics, but I can gather that it’s a commentary on the state of things in the USA and against war in general. I did also watch the music video on YouTube, but it is a bit gruesome and violent and I figured it best not to post it here. Go watch it if you’re interested but view digression advised as there’s some heavy imagery.
Daveed Diggs – clipping.
Born in Oakland, CA to a Jewish mother and an African-American father in 1982, Diggs got his first name from the Jewish pronunciation of David and his father liked how the two E’s looked. His parents’ ethnicities have contributed to Diggs’ own self-identity; he identified with his mother’s Jewish heritage and his father’s background as well, never seeing the two as separate. Diggs graduated from Brown University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts. Post-graduation, he worked as a substitute teacher. In 2010, he joined William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes in their hip-hop group clipping. which they had formed the year prior. Diggs took the role of vocalist and writer. In 2013 they released their debut mixtape ‘midcity‘ with some success. In 2014, after signing with Sub Pop, they released their first album ‘CLPPNG‘. Meanwhile, Diggs remained involved with musical theatre: in 2012, he was asked by Lin-Manuel Miranda to read and hear early versions of Hamilton. Impressed by Miranda’s vision and passion for the project, Diggs went on to portray Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette off Broadway in 2015. clipping. would go on to find moderate success throughout the 2010s and adopted some abrasive, industrial tendencies along the way. Their track ‘Story 7’ from their 2019 album ‘There Existed an Addiction to Blood‘ does a good way of showcasing both Diggs’ sharp lyricism and the group’s overall uneasy sound.
Reflection on ‘Story 7’ (2019) by clipping.:
I think this is the closest we’ve come to traditional hip-hop in this blog post and even then this is not your grandma’s hip-hop. It starts out minimalistic with just Diggs’ vocals and a really simple beat. Even when the track really gets going, not much instrumentation is added, but the beat / percussion gets a bit more complex. The percussion is, again, sharp and noisy. Diggs’ flow is really impressive. There are parts where he’s rapping quite quickly and the refrains feature a more melodic, almost singing flow. It’s hard to tell exactly what the lyrics are trying to convey, especially in the parts where Diggs is rapping really fast, but I just love the noisy production on this track. It manages to create a really oppressive atmosphere with little more than a voice and a simple beat. I wouldn’t even call Diggs’ vocals “scary”, it’s really just the percussion that achieves this, but somehow the vocals really compliment it. I really want to check out more of clipping.’s stuff! They’re on my list to dive into.
References:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_hip_hop
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_Ride
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Grips
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exmilitary
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho99o9
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Horror
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daveed_Diggs
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(band)
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Existed_an_Addiction_to_Blood
[12] clppng. (2019). Story 7. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzwvWtJ4nwM