ALBUM REVIEW: There Existed An Addiction to Blood by Clipping

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WRITTEN BY: Holden Linton

Just in time for the season, Noise-Hop visionaries William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes, and frontman Daveed Diggs, come together as Clipping Once again for a new record that will actually scare listeners with challenging and thrilling sounds for the Halloween holiday. The group has come back from a three year hiatus, which was due to Daveed Diggs involvement with the broadway musical Hamilton. Fans of Hamilton and Daveed Diggs work in the play would probably be easily turned away from what Daveed Diggs really does. Clipping is making some of the noisiest, aggressive, and violent hip hop out there right now. They are in the mix of Industrial/Experimental Hip Hop artists that have arisen within this decade and their name is starting to get further out there.

Clipping’s discography so far has been strikingly consistent starting from the noisy Midcity, to their near-masterpiece self titled album, then to their story album Splendor & Misery. Now with There Existed an Addiction to Blood, Clipping continues to stay on the path of consistency with its mind-blowing and upfront production. This record is a little more harsh than others, yet the beats on this album are absolute insanity and spook-a-licious. The record gets progressively louder and rewarding with each track.

Starting off being warmed up in the beginning of the album with tracks such as “Nothing is Safe,” the setting is set perfectly with the dissonant spooky piano hits and horror-like synth arpeggios in the background while Daveed Diggs raps impressively well as usual. The album then starts to pick up and stone listeners with out-of-this-world beats and noise. It makes the wait till the ending very much worth it and the album does an amazing job with keeping listener interest. Every track on this album is completely worth the time it takes to listen. A notable track to start off would have to be the largely disturbing and droney “Club Down” featuring Sarah Bernat. The track just feels like being tied up at the bottom of a long and dark hole with Daveed Diggs just spitting horror.

The track “Run for Your Life” is super impressive with its use of panning and its hypnotising street sounds of a car driving by your headphones. Not to mention, Daveed starts with rapping without a beat, but then a car driving by is playing a beat that makes it seem like the cars that are playing music driving by are on beat with his rapping, GENIUS! “All in Your Head” is filled with fidgety bass sounds and a wide atmospheric feeling that makes it feel like an interrogation. The beat on this track is amazing and a definite highlight of the record.

Most notable would have to go to the teeth-wrenching and anti-racism “Blood of The Fang,” which deserves an award for single of the year with its hypnotizing beat, use of samples, and flow. The hustling beat is thrilling and dark with industrial-like sounds in the background while Daveed raps about how defeating racism requires more than a discussion, but a fight. Listeners might complain about the last track called “Piano Burning,” which is basically an 18-minute long field recording of a Piano Burning. The thing with this track is that for being 18 minutes long, it does not feel that way. “Piano Burning” felt necessary and completes the record in such a great and relaxing way. The production is amazing as always and it has only been taken to the next level on this record with its creepy undertones.

Track listing:

1. Intro
2. Nothing Is Safe
3. He Dead (featuring Ed Balloon)
4. Haunting (Interlude)
5. La Mala Ordina (with The Rita featuring Elcamino and Benny The Butcher)
6. Club Down (with Sarah Bernat)
7. Prophecy (Interlude)
8. Run For Your Life (featuring La Chat)
9. The Show
10. Possession (Interlude)
11. All In Your Head (featuring Counterfeit Madison and Robyn Hood)
12. Blood of the Fang
13. Story 7
14. Attunement (with Pedestrian Deposit)
15. Piano Burning