Clppng＜Colored Vinyl＞

Innovations in hip-hop have a long history of tending toward abrasive sounds, from the call-to-arms sirens of Bomb Squad's production on early Public Enemy albums to the pseudo-industrial squall of Kanye West's controversially caustic Yeezus album. L.A. trio clipping takes this fondness for harsh sounds to the next level with CLPPNG, a strange hybrid of noise frequencies, brutally dark beats, and MC Daveed Diggs' unhinged, often ugly lyrical flow. The group began as a recording project between producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson, reworking commercial hip-hop songs by laying a cappella vocal tracks over new beats of their own creation made up of punishing power electronics and other gruesome noise tones -- an unexpected juxtaposition, and one that runs through a wide range of lawless sounds on the 14 sinister tracks that make up CLPPNG. A minute-long introduction track sounds like little more than Diggs rapping over a beatless din of Merzbow-like feedback, which runs immediately into the horror-rap lyrics and distorted bass monotony of "Body & Blood." Ex-Three 6 Mafia member Gangsta Boo shows up for a cameo verse on "Tonight," a minimal, electro-tinged beat serving as a backdrop for Diggs' portrait of last-call desperation. ~ Fred Thomas

自主リリースした2013年の『midcity』が評判になってサブ・ポップと契約したLAのヒップホップ・トリオ、初のフィジカル・リリース。2014年に入ってからもローリング・ストーン誌〈10 New Artists You Need To Know〉に選出されて高い注目を集めているが、エクスペリメンタルなヒップホップを指向しながらもギャングスタ・ラップに強い愛着を示しているあたりが彼らのユニークな点。実際、ここではゲストにキング・Tやギャングスタ・ブーを招いているほか、“Dream”にはノトーリアスBIG“Juicy”の一節をもじった〈It was all a dream/Picutures in MurderDog magazine〉なんてラインがあったりする。“Body &Blood”や“Or Die”などインダストリアル路線の楽曲はデス・グリップスに通ずるところも。
bounce (C)高橋芳朗