Cardi B Makes Room For Death Grips As Single ‘Black Paint’ Named ‘Song Of The Summer’
Cardi B’s single “I Like It” has garnered some 186 million views since being posted to YouTube in March of 2018. One needn’t question why such a song would be named by a prominent music outlet as “Song of the Summer.” However, in an unexpected turn of events, a band most people are unfamiliar with are showing up alongside Cardi B, marking a noticeable change in the landscape of popular music.
Death Grips’ new single “Black Paint” is the “Song of the Summer,” according to Rolling Stone.
The Inquisitr named Death Grips’ new album, Year of the Snitch, in an unscored review, “the most intense record of the decade.” Pitchfork gave the album a 7.3, while The Needle Drop‘s Anthony Fantano rated the album a 9.
Death Grips recently announced a European tour beginning in August.
While Cardi B is enjoying massive hits on her music video, Death Grips posted “Black Paint” to YouTube in May, and have received significantly fewer views. Less than one million views received for their highly praised song sounds like a potential disappointment. However, there’s more to the story, as Death Grips doesn’t have major promotion. In fact they have virtually no outside promotion at all. The band also refuses interviews and doesn’t appear on television. Their own official website, Twitter, YouTube, and their official Facebook page serve as the band’s primary source of promotional platforms. When taken into account, Death Grips’ nearly 750,000 views for “Black Paint” may seem a bit more impressive. More impressive still, an older YouTube music video for “No Love” is approaching 5 million views.
Rolling Stone cites “Black Paint” and the success of Death Grips in general, as a return to darker music themes of the mid-to-late ’90s. Bands such as Nine Inch Nails had unexpected success with the bleak, nihilistic album, The Downward Spiral. Also successful around the same time was Korn’s notably dark self-titled debut album, as well as the even darker followup, Life Is Peachy. Hip-hop wasn’t without notably morbid entries as well, such as Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die.
Cardi B may well have picked a strange time in music to have released her single “I Like It,” as she’s having to share summer song status with bands like Death Grips. In keeping with Rolling Stone‘s assessment of ’90s darkness making a return, Nine Inch Nails, released their newest album the same day as Death Grips released Year of The Snitch. Bad Witch is also gaining positive reviews across music outlets.
In a rapidly changing music environment, which appears to be trading catchy summer tunes for experimental intensity, pop music artists like Cardi B may be sharing headlines with bands like Death Grips and Nine Inch Nails for the foreseeable future.
A fan of Jimi Hendrix, Frontman MC Ride of Death Grips has not commented his thoughts on Rolling Stone’s “Songs of the Summer” picks as of yet, nor his thoughts on Cardi B’s single “I Like It.”
