Subverting Emotions Through Music

Many pop songs and pop stars nowadays follow a similar format, singing songs about how they had a broken heart or how much they love someone, partying, being young, all the vibrant colors under the sun. In reality however, we know that not everything is rainbows and sunshine, yet we never explore that other side of human emotions. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional pop song every now and then, but I prefer songs that challenge that format. Death Grips, being an experimental rap group from northern California, is a band that constantly does so. Known as the founding fathers of this form of rap, Death Grips is always one step ahead of their audience, subverting expectations and emotions while staying true to themselves. Much like how the sound is completely new and unheard of, so is the message they serve to the rap game and pop music as a whole. They talk about death, paranoia, schizophrenia, intense drug use, all of which doesn't appeal to the typical hip hop message of getting with women and money (although they surely would reference these things, it is rap after all). "Eh" is a song by Death Grips in which MC Ride (the rapper of the group) points a finger at his audience and says "I don't need you, you don't know what I'm thinking, and I could easily give all this away." he is essentially referring to his inner emotions, depending on them to relay his appeal to ethos. In a genre which they have created from the ground up, they are able to talk about whatever they want, and that is sort of the motto of Death Grips, subversion is what makes them a fierce force in the experimental rap genre.