Death Grips

If I'm Epic I'm more pissed that they cancelled their tour which would be in theory promoting the album Epic actually released than that they released another record on the interwebs.

xp yeah I think it's a pretty weird position to take on a band that you signed on the basis of a free mixtape frankly.

"but by then everyone would be sick of death grips because they had released a bunch of similar-sounding music in a short timespan"

That would probably be a good time to drop then, right?

Drop them, ahem.

But, uh, tons of bands get signed on the basis of free demos. I'm not sure what your point is? They gave away music that Epic was supposed to be making money off of. I'm not trying to play captain save-a-major here, but it's not hard to understand why they're pissed off about it.

so basically you're confused by the fact that the label would want to throw its full marketing power behind each release, which it basically can't do if the releases are too close together. so then epic is stuck in this position of being like "no, ignore these free releases and pay attention to these official releases" which is absurd. you can't flood the market with a bunch of music and ask people to pay for half of it but not the other half.

lots of major label rap artists release mixtapes on the black market, sometimes even without the label's knowledge or explicit permission. but this was never called a mixtape, it was always called an album and was the album they'd promised to the label right up until they put it online. i mean it's a semantic thing but most legal issues are.

issue is probably much less that they put out some free music than the obnoxious (figurative and literal) dick-waving the group did about it

there's prob another point in there about death grips being marketed to a diff, more album-oriented audience than other rappers who put out mixtapes but i'm not the guy with the knowledge to make it.

There is a good argument to be made that this band's general obnoxiousness is one of their more marketable assets.

oh yeah absolutely. i'm just saying there IS a precedent for that kind of thing but they weren't following it musically or businesswise. (xpost)

sure, but for that to work the band needs to be obnoxious to everyone but the label

xp

"They gave away music that Epic was supposed to be making money off of. "

Sure, but this only matters if you believe that this was 1) replace another record that Epic could have made money off or 2) that this was going to so saturate the Death Grips that no one would want another Death Grips in which case you probably made a mistake signing them anyway.

"sure, but for that to work the band needs to be obnoxious to everyone but the label"

Not sure that's true in this day and age.

eh to me it's all good to fuck shit up on an indie level, but if you do the whole major label gamble you may as well jump through their hoops, because there's no real benefit to doing it for a few months in a self-sabotaging way other than impressing whatever anti-corporate tightasses are out there still thinking this is how you 'fight the power'

Yeah I don't know. I don't even know what Death Grips gets out of this whole thing. Except for some bonus money and a lawsuit.

what i'm saying! their motives are far more of a mystery to me than a big label acting the way big labels have always acted.

They are definitely a weird bunch of dudes.

"They gave away music that Epic was supposed to be making money off of. "

Sure, but this only matters if you believe that this was 1) replace another record that Epic could have made money off or 2) that this was going to so saturate the Death Grips that no one would want another Death Grips in which case you probably made a mistake signing them anyway.

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:35 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not sure why you find the idea of spacing out releases so weird? my favorite band on the planet would probably tire me out if they released two records a year.

or to put it another way, epic's only goal is to sell as much death grips as possible; this is made considerably more challenging if they don't control the flow of death grips material.

Why do you find the idea of releasing a mess of stuff weird? Some of my favorites seem to have no problem releasing two or three records a year, etc.

Also, iirc, this actually was the exact album the band had been promoting all year and I'm sure Epic was planning on releasing it. They'd mentioned this one by name when they signed to Epic.

the whole thing of "we're putting out two albums this year! even if it means canceling a tour we already booked!" was just bizarre to begin with. the only way this would all make sense to me is if it turned out that the label made them stay off the road and finish the album and then was like 'actually we don't need it til next year after all.'

xxxp you are aware that Death Grips basically has made videos for like every single song on their album? I think it's pretty hard to imagine a world where Epic was going to be able "control the flow" and not sure again why they'd be interested in that. Again both Epic and Death Grips motives here are kinda opaque. I'm not clear (other than money for DG) what either was expecting to get out of this relationship.

"I'm sure Epic was planning on releasing it."

Not anytime soon according to Death Grips.

what the hell do videos have to do with anything

Anyway, I do like the alternate covers that have popped up online, besides the band sanctioned one with the "suck my dick" socks. There's, uh, the female equivalent of the cover. But this is the one I gave the album for my iPod:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbapo5wk5l1qcrevfo1_500.jpg

Not anytime soon according to Death Grips.

Uh, I guess? I'm not sure what your argument is anymore.

i think epic just wanted to be able to release death grips albums on a schedule by which they'd be in a position to market and promote them. if you find that opaque i don't know what to tell you.

"what the hell do videos have to do with anything"

You're not really up on how a lot of people listen to music these days are you?

you'll have to explain to me what you meant by "their album" alex, i'm sry i'm not up on death grips youtubes

didn't Epic tell the band they were going to release the album in early 2013? that's pretty soon

xxxp again I find Epic's motives for signing DG in the first place opaque. I understand their motive for dropping them. I find that motive weird given who Death Grips is and how I would figure you would try to market them, but I have no problem comprehending it.

Or to be more clear I find people overly protective of the value of the music of a band who releases a bunch of stuff for free seems to me to be kinda weird. Like maybe you shoulda thought of that before you signed them? I don't know.

lots of artists release a bunch of music for free AND THEN get signed and focus on selling it. that's kind of the standard these days, in fact.

Plenty of artists still release music for free though at the same time they sell it.

yeah, and they coordinate w/ the label that's selling it

xxxp again I find Epic's motives for signing DG in the first place opaque. I understand their motive for dropping them. I find that motive weird given who Death Grips is and how I would figure you would try to market them, but I have no problem comprehending it.

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:55 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't find the motive for signing them opaque at all; they were basically looking for another rage against the machine. difference being rage always played ball with their corporate overlords.

xp Haha yeah very clearly label cooperation not high Death Grips priority list.

xp did DG give the impression of being willing to play ball ever? That's just not how I read them.

they probably fucking did when they were in the room signing the contract, alex!

i mean how do you think these things work

do you think death grips said "we will ignore your instruction on when to release music, epic records" and the epic guys were like "oh, you lil cute indie rap band, what are we gonna do with you"

yeah noone's saying they can't be crazy free spirits that answer to nobody! thousands of musicians do that every day! they just don't sign anybody's contract or taking anybody's money!

xp that seems to be how they are behaving?!?!

xp and most record labels don't try to make 'em either!

Anyway obviously not a match made in heaven.

xp that seems to be how they are behaving?!?!

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Friday, November 2, 2012 12:10 AM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't even know why i'm bothering but how they are behaving today and how they were behaving when they signed might well be two different things!

for chrissakes you act like the band was forced into this arrangement