The Powers That B
Death Grips 2015 pioneering
experimental hip-hop Industrial Hip-Hop noise-rock Avant-Garde Rap
A double album that pits Bjork-sampling digital psychosis against live-instrument punk catharsis, reaching for total genre annihilation from both directions at once.
Acoustic Profile
Production
Method: hybrid
Fidelity: raw
Björk vocal samples deconstructed and recontextualizedLive instrumentation colliding with digital processingProg-influenced structural complexity across double albumExtreme frequency manipulation and harsh noise interludesMulti-layered polyrhythmic drum programming
Vocal
Approach: mixed
Lyrical Abstraction: 9/10
Mood & Theme
chaos paranoia rage ecstasy
Territory: psychic-disintegration, Occult Power, Systematic Destruction, Ego Death
Emotional Arc: Total Structural Collapse
Era & Context
A double album released in two halves across two years, The Powers That B marked Death Grips at peak ambition. Niggas on the Moon sampled Björk's vocals into a collage of fractured aggression, while Jenny Death returned to live instrumentation. The juxtaposition embodied their refusal to be categorizable even within their own catalog.
Spiritual Links (10)
Mutant Arca (2015)
7/10 genre-destructionsonic-experimentation
Yeezus Kanye West (2013)
6/10 maximalist-excessgenre-destruction
Medulla Bjork (2004)
6/10 voice-as-instrumentradical-reinvention
Confield Autechre (2001)
6/10 rhythmic-innovationsonic-experimentation
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back Public Enemy (1988)
6/10 sonic-experimentationpolitical-rage
The Fragile Nine Inch Nails (1999)
5/10 maximalist-excessstudio-as-instrument
Cosmogramma Flying Lotus (2010)
5/10 genre-destructionrhythmic-innovation
Lateralus TOOL (2001)
4/10 rhythmic-innovationspiritual-seeking
Ascension John Coltrane (1966)
4/10 improvisational-freedomgenre-destruction
On the Corner Miles Davis (1972)
4/10 alienation-of-fanbasegenre-destruction
Influences
Similar Albums (Cross-Artist)
1
Bitches Brew Miles Davis (1970)
72% 2 Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) RZA (1993)
69% 3 On the Corner Miles Davis (1972)
66% 4 In Utero Nirvana (1993)
65% 5 Maggot Brain Parliament-Funkadelic (1971)
65% 6 The Rite of Spring Igor Stravinsky (1913)
65% 7 You're Dead! Flying Lotus (2014)
65% 8 The Downward Spiral Nine Inch Nails (1994)
65% 9 Ascension John Coltrane (1966)
65% 10 Bone Machine Tom Waits (1992)
64%