#clipping

Dead Channel Sky by Clipping

Actual wizardry. Their heavily experimental style with inexplicable pop appeal invites comparison to Death Grips, but I find that they address my main criticism of the latter. I love Death Grips, but MC Ride is often buried in the mix in a way I don't like. clipping never approaches this, Diggs is undeniably the centerpiece of this unsettling soundscape envisioning criminal life through a series of horror-oriented vignettes. These vignettes, in which Diggs is always a narrator, not a character almost seem to tell an chronological, overarching story through unrelated characters. The lyrics paired with Diggs' enthralling delivery of them and the minimalist production setting a scene behind them create such a complete atmosphere in spite of (or perhaps because of) the limitation of never saying "I" in lyrics. In another group's hands this could lead to feeling disconnected, but the detailed yet approachable lyrics pull you in, crafting believable situations, and placing "you" in them.

Standout Tracks

Intro and Get Up. Only a truly elite MC could make such appealing tracks over an unaccompanied dentist drill or alarm clock

Body and Blood is absolutely infectious, that pounding bass only letting up for an equally driving chorus

Inside Out is the finest example of Diggs' lyricism, the focus on tiny details as if looking around as time is stopped, its so good

Story 2 is one of my favorite hip hop tracks ever, the gimmick of counting up meters is absolutely enthralling

I appreciate their commitment to ending albums with performances of avant-garde "instructive" music, but I don't like Williams Mix due to my huge aversion to musique concrète and John Cage specifically.

Honorable mentions: Every other track except Tonight and Dominoes, which are painfully cliché (yes I know Tonight is on purpose and I get the joke)

Cover Art

would love a beginner’s guide for getting into clipping?

any recs/suggestions wld be greatly appreciated😋

Hey there hi there ho there!

Oh that's such a personal journey, but I'll do my best to give you some useful options.

Depending on your personal preferences, I would start by listening to CLPPNG (I would argue their most 'accessible' album, as it's not as harsh as Midcity, and has quite a wide variety of styles since it's not tied to one contained concept) here Or if you're feeling like a narrative, and/or sci-fi, start with Splendor & Misery here Or if horror's your jam, There Existed an Addiction to Blood here

And once you're into the style, go back to bandcamp and listen through (and buy) all the albums, each is distinct and interesting in its own right. Also, I would suggest reading along on genius - even if English is your native language, it's easy to miss out on their lyrical artistry.

For an overview and mildly detailed introduction into their process and history, here's a good interview from 2 years ago.

If you wanna scroll my own descent into obsession, here's a decade of posts in chronological order, feat. a glut of performances and interviews and social media silliness.

I happen to already have uploaded the media I possess from around the time of the Splendor & Misery release for use in the upcoming anniversary, so feel free to download from my proton. (For personal viewing only, please.) I still have a crapton of stuffs saved over the years on my harddrive, so if you can't find something specific, it's likely that I have it and am happy to upload.

clipping.: Push Into The Red

[...] Are you playing straight versions of the songs that you've written? Is there an element of improv at all?

Jonathan Snipes: The place where there's the most play is the transitions, but we keep the spine of the songs pretty similar. Even if we're fucking them up enough that they become less recognizable, Daveed has to know where we are; he has to know what the song is. Now that he's on in-ear monitors, we can actually do a lot more of that because we can send Daveed a completely different mix from what the crowd hears. He can hear the song and a click, and I can do whatever.

William Hutson: We can ruin it completely, and he'll stay on beat. [Laughs] Jonathan's stuff is basically an incredibly full-featured, stemmed-out mixing DJ setup. He's got full control over all of that, but it all stems from our studio tracks. And we have a pianist now!

[...] That was something I wanted to touch on because there are some songs, like "Club Down" or "He Dead," that have fainter, less-defined pulses, which are a bit more droney. Daveed, how do you find pockets on tracks like those? How do you navigate more nebulous beats?

Daveed Diggs: I'll often ask for a click on those, but usually, the choice there is that my voice will be the metronome. The assignment is to write in a really specific, repeatable cadence that lets us know where we are at all times. That is the spine of it, which will then allow for the rest of the sounds. I almost always try to generate the idea without a click, because I want to know it has to be based on the feel without it. And then once I know what I'm trying to do, I'll ask for the click so that I can make sure I know where I am in the song. A technique I use a lot is to repeat phrases, with a word or two changing in the same spot in each verse, so I'll need to be able to count bars to know where I am. [Laughs]

William Hutson: Is Daveed's voice, the drums, the click, the thing that tells you where you are rhythmically and holds the song together, leaving us to be really free? Or is Daveed's voice going to jump all around, and are we going to make something that loops or repeats in a way that you feel that pulse? I actually think "Club Down" is an interesting one, because that one has a bunch of really different cadences throughout that seem interestingly unmotivated by the forward progression of that building drone. Daveed's voice decides what part is what, and the thing itself just goes, "Clonk. Clonk. Clonk."

[...] What kind of notes do you give each other? How do you delineate roles when you are figuring out what a song needs to be?

Jonathan Snipes: There are certainly many conversations between Daveed and Bill about the lyrical content and the overall dramaturgy. By the time that we're all together, there's been some decision about the trajectory of a song that I didn't know about.

Daveed Diggs: If Jonathan and I are left to our own devices, some real silly shit goes down. Bill is definitely an arbiter of taste in this band that is probably appreciated more by the audience than by us.

[...] You've stressed in previous interviews that one of the most important things is the “feel” of your sounds. How do you know when you've gotten that right?