Decoding Death Grips' The Money Store: An In-Depth Album Analysis

The initial wave of critical acclaim for The Money Store marked my first encounter with Death Grips. Like many, my first listen was met with confusion and a sense of unease. Despite knowing their dedicated fanbase, I couldn’t envision myself becoming one. I was unsure if I even liked it. My immediate reaction was to seek a comprehensive explanation of what I had just experienced. However, unlike readily available analyses for artists like Kendrick Lamar or Frank Ocean, I found only perplexed fan posts, struggling to even broadly understand the album’s essence.

Today, many consider The Money Store a strong contender for the greatest album ever created. This analysis aims to articulate the reasons behind this claim, dissecting the album’s complexities and revealing its enduring power.

Profile & Publishing Details {#profile-publishing-details}

Death Grips, the Sacramento, California based trio comprised of Zach Hill, Stefan Burnett (known as Ride), and Andy Morin, unleashed The Money Store in 2012. This album, their major label debut and to date, only major label release, served as their breakthrough, achieving both mainstream popularity and widespread critical acclaim. Exmilitary, their initial full-length project, preceded it, and No Love Deep Web (NØ LØV∑ D∑∑P W∏B), another album, followed in the same year, forming a trilogy that the band considers a cohesive body of work.

Originally released by Epic Records (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) on March 24th, 2012, The Money Store surfaced online via a YouTube leak on March 14th. Following their departure from Epic, Death Grips independently re-released the album on vinyl. It consistently ranks as Death Grips’ most critically lauded project and a standout album of 2012, garnering an average score of approximately 8/10 from critics. Notably, it marked the first 10/10 score from prominent YouTube music reviewer Anthony Fantano, who is often credited with popularizing the group. The Money Store was the first of four Death Grips albums to chart on the Billboard 200, reaching its peak at #130 during its debut week. To promote the album, Death Grips performed five shows, including Coachella 2012. A more extensive tour was initially planned but ultimately canceled to allow the band to focus on completing their subsequent album, No Love Deep Web. Touring resumed in October 2012, supporting both albums. The Money Store encompasses 13 tracks and has a runtime of approximately 41 minutes:

Get Got
The Fever (Aye Aye)
Lost Boys
Blackjack
Hustle Bones
I’ve Seen Footage
Double Helix
System Blower
The Cage
Punk Weight
Fuck That
Bitch Please
Hacker

Analysis Abstract {#analysis-abstract}

The Money Store operates on a deeply conceptual, figurative, and abstract level, drawing parallels to diverse art movements including Modernism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism, Psychedelia, Pop Art, and Punk. Lyrically, it delves into themes of violence, occultism, crime, mental health, counter-culture, popular culture, nihilism, individualism, hedonism, and libertinism. These themes are explored through vignette-style mini-narratives, presented through an intensely subjective, anarchic, and harsh lens, interpreting the more grounded reality most people experience. The album jarringly shifts perspectives as Death Grips navigates through its sonic landscape, ultimately championing individuality in the face of the world’s darker aspects.

“These songs were conceptualized in all these weird, random ways. We approach music almost like musique concrète: We’re sampling our day-to-day along with the filthiest things off of YouTube and trying to build powerful music out of all this stuff that’s usually seen as trash.”– Zach Hill for Pitchfork

The Album Artwork: A Visual Manifesto {#the-album-artwork-a-visual-manifesto}

The Money Store boasts exceptionally striking album artwork:

The Money Store album cover art featuring a black and white photograph of a woman holding a leash attached to a person on the ground, taken from a zine by artist Sua Yoo

The illustration is sourced from a zine by artist Sua Yoo, who has had other visual collaborations with the band, notably with her image serving as the cover art for the instrumental release Fashion Week. Death Grips themselves have offered insight into the album cover’s meaning in a Pitchfork interview:

“On the cover you have an androgynous masochist on the leash of a feminist sadist who’s smoking. The sadist has carved Death Grips into her bitch’s chest. There is an overly confident quality to the woman smoking and a calmness to the androgynous masochist.”– Death Grips for Pitchfork

The group aimed for a cover embodying the “same progressive and edge ideology” that fuels their music, intending to represent their “views on sexuality and modern society.” They elaborated:

“We consider ourselves feminists, we fiercely support homosexuality, transparent world leadership, and the idea of embracing yourself as an individual in any shape or form. Acceleration is a mantra, we’re not a political band, we are freaks and outsiders. It was important to project that message and energy through the artwork of this album. This is free thinking and eternally open-ended music… [The cover] is like an ambassador to the sound.”– Death Grips for Pitchfork

Deeper connections exist within The Money Store‘s album art. It shares compositional elements with the High Priestess and The Devil cards from the Tarot deck, further linking to subsequent Death Grips releases, artwork, and associated esoteric themes. Stefan Burnett, in particular, seems to embody these occult and esoteric themes, evidenced by lyrical references and even his numerous tattoos. Examples include the Baphomet symbol on his palm, the Necronomicon Gate on his chest, and what appears to be a Haitian Vodou Veve on his shoulder.

Speculation surrounds the album’s title, with some interpreting its oxymoronic humor as reflecting the duality themes present in the artwork and throughout the album. Is Death Grips critiquing capitalism by satirizing the rat race with an ironic title? While tangentially related to some lyrics, the most concrete interpretation of the album’s title originates from Sacramento’s iconic “Ziggurat” building, designed to resemble an ancient Mesopotamian structure:

The Ziggurat building in Sacramento, California, a stepped pyramid structure that used to be the headquarters of a loan company called The Money Store.

“What’s the most comically ugly building in Sacramento?There is the Ziggurat building in Sacramento, it is designed like a giant stepped pyramid. It’s an amazing building, it used to be the headquarters of a loan company called The Money Store.”– Death Grips for L.A. Record

Compositional Breakdown: Deconstructing Hip-Hop {#compositional-breakdown-deconstructing-hip-hop}

Compositionally, The Money Store begins by dissecting Hip-Hop into its core components: rapped poetry, the beat, and instrumental production. Death Grips’ sound emerges from isolating, stripping bare, and hyperbolically exaggerating each element before reassembling them. They describe their creative process as communal, with all conception and music production being a group effort, though each member has a primary focus. Stefan Burnett focuses on lyrics and vocal performance, Zach Hill on drumming and production, and Andy Morin on production and engineering. Notably, Andy and Stefan are occasionally absent from song credits, and one tour featured only Stefan and Zach performing with backing tracks.

This “Hip-Hop turned up to 11” approach serves as the fundamental vehicle not only for Death Grips’ sound but also for conveying the aforementioned conceptual themes. Just as classic West Coast Hip-Hop icons like The Notorious B.I.G. or N.W.A. rapped street poetry, depicting narratives of gang affiliation and experiences of racist oppression, Death Grips’ lyrics inhabit a similarly hardcore Hip-Hop ethos, saturated with violence, fear, danger, occultism, and profoundly detached mental states. Ride’s vocal delivery is often likened to that of a violent, deranged homeless individual. Death Grips’ brand of aggressive, vagrant neo-punk delivery is an accelerated response to the Hardcore/Gangsta Rap that came before them.

Zach Hill’s background is rooted in the more rock-oriented California music scene, encompassing extensive session work and several personal projects. Hella, a mathy noise rock band typically composed of two members, is his most recognized project outside of Death Grips. Hella’s music provides a platform for Hill to showcase his drumming prowess. His solo work is perhaps the purest expression of his unique skill and style, known for drumming with such intensity that his hands bleed and generating a pile of broken drumsticks during a single performance, and for a bass drum technique so rapid it’s often mistaken for two.

Andy Morin is frequently the most overlooked member, possibly due to his seemingly less overt creative influence on Death Grips’ music. He joined after Zach and Stefan had already conceived the project. Morin, a long-time friend of Hill, had previously produced some of Hill’s drumming projects. Andy is instrumental in bringing together the glitchy, industrial, eclectic, and distinctly alien elements of their sound.

“Yeah. Not necessarily music. We wouldn’t talk about what this thing would sound like. It was all about empowerment for ourselves, not for other people. We’d talk about it like it was another person who was in the room. It was about this place where we could let out a lot of internalized things with hyper-velocity. We would talk about a super-inspiring sound as a concept, like a drug you’d take. There were a lot of philosophical conversations. At the start, we never really once talked about what kind of sounds we’d make, or instruments we’d use.”– Zach Hill for Pitchfork

Stefan Burnett has a long history with Hip-Hop. Around the mid-90s, he abandoned his Visual Art studies at Hampton University to pursue rapping in Fyre, an experimental Hip-Hop group. While Fyre never achieved significant success, they produced several lo-fi and progressive albums. Burnett’s work in Fyre (under the moniker Mxlplx) reveals a distinct aesthetic compared to Death Grips, yet in retrospect, it clearly foreshadows his later work, particularly in his lyrical style. After Fyre disbanded, Burnett focused on painting. Zach Hill’s first visit to Burnett’s home revealed it “stacked floor to ceiling with paintings.”

“Lyrically, Death Grips represent the glorification of the gut…the id..summoned, tapped, and channelled before being imprisoned and raped by the laws of reason… All songs are written collectively and then maximized through painstaking attention to detail. We practice the art of deconstruction with the devotion of possessed fanatics. Both idealists and pessimists live in delusional fantasies rooted in their incapacity to deal with the way of things. We are realists. Anyone who feels safe is a brainwashed lamb ready for the slaughter.”– Stefan Burnett for CLASH

Early Hip-Hop and rapping were known for their aggressive tone and content, and Death Grips pushes this to an extreme. Now known as Ride (often mistakenly referred to as ‘MC Ride’ due to a presumed missing comma in an early review), Stefan frequently shouts his lyrics with violent intensity and often incomprehensibly, making even N.W.A. sound tame in comparison. Unlike the ego-driven persona of, say, 2Pac, Ride presents something closer to unfiltered, raw, unconscious thoughts and reactions to the world. Consider this iconic lyric sample from N.W.A.’s “Fuck the Police”:

Fuck the police! Comin’ straight from the underground
A young nigga got it bad ‘cause I’m brown
And not the other color, so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority

This delivers a clear message with a noticeable cadence and flow. While not strictly adhering to iambic pentameter, it loosely follows the pattern, with emphasis falling in a pleasing rhythm and stressed syllables at line endings. The rhyme scheme is also sensible, with “brown” and “underground” being a near rhyme achieved without forcing it. This well-composed style became hugely influential in Hip-Hop, and this verse is an iconic benchmark. Compare it to these Death Grips lines from “I’ve Seen Footage” conveying a similar theme:

armored cop open fire glock
on some kid who stepped so
fast was hard ta grasp what even happened
til you seen dat head blow
off his shoulders in slow mo

While depicting a similar scene, Death Grips spares no graphic detail. Cadence is largely disregarded. Ride spits these lines out as if they are written words, a disjointed barrage. Lines 1, 2, and 4 have consistent syllable counts and are each given a bar, but to maintain the “so,” “blow,” and “mo” rhyme, line 2 is abruptly cut short with a pause, and line 3 feels like two and a half lines crammed into two bars, delivered with the inflection of a single line. Ride rushes through with brute force, dropping a syllable from “happened” to connect it to the already contracted “until” (as “til”), allowing him to convey a graphic image within only 4 lines, spanning five bars, with an at least recognizable rhyme scheme. While the N.W.A. lines utilize the interplay of emphasis and relaxation, the Death Grips lines are purely emphasis and more emphasis. The meter is similarly loose, particularly in the lack of rhythm in line 3’s syllable contraction and combination. However, it’s mostly written in trochaic meter, the opposite of N.W.A.’s iambic meter, resulting in a downward inflection at the end of each line. Using the classic poetic meter analogy, every second syllable in the N.W.A. lines inflects upwards like a heartbeat, while the Death Grips lines are more like an arrhythmic, backward heart attack.

This lyricism and convoluted delivery are hallmarks of Death Grips and are prevalent throughout The Money Store and their entire discography.

Sampling, another fundamental element of Hip-Hop, is taken to an unprecedented level by Death Grips. Their samples are incredibly diverse, ranging from The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to obscure YouTube videos like Venus and Serena Williams grunting or the Vancouver Skytrain. What sets them apart is how radically twisted and distorted these samples become, often rendering them unrecognizable. In some cases, fans spent years identifying them. Undoubtedly, many more remain undiscovered. Confirmed samples are detailed in the track-by-track breakdowns below. Their eclectic nature often makes them seem random or meaningless, perhaps chosen to expand the group’s references as broadly as possible, crafting something contrived out of chaos and broken elements.

Interpretational Abstract: Cubism in Lyrics {#interpretational-abstract-cubism-in-lyrics}

When I first began deciphering Death Grips’ lyrics, they evoked the distinct Cubism pioneered by Pablo Picasso:

Pablo Picasso's painting "Femme au béret orange et au col de fourrure" (Marie-Thérèse) (1937), showcasing Cubist style with multiple perspectives.

Pablo Picasso, Femme au béret orange et au col de fourrure (Marie‐Thérèse) (1937) – Image via Christie’s

The connection may not be immediately apparent, but both Picasso’s style and Death Grips’ lyrics are distinct, unusual, and enigmatic. Picasso’s Cubism is typically described as portraying subjects from multiple perspectives, jarringly overlaid upon one another. I’ve found this concept helpful in understanding some of Death Grips’ more incomprehensible lyrics. Consider this sample:

i got this pregnant snake
stay surrounded by long hairs
a plethroa of maniacs
and spiral stairs
make your water break
in the apple store
sink or swim, who fucking cares
cut the birth cords

These lines are from the first verse of the album’s final track, “Hacker.” Upon initial reading, their meaning is largely unfathomable. They are structured somewhat like a garden-path sentence, where the first part of the line provides context, ultimately misleading you by the second half, as the topic shifts before you realize it, disguised within technically correct grammar and syntax. I believe these four lines originated from two separate vocal takes of three lines each, subsequently stitched together, most evident in lines five and six. “Make your water break in the Apple Store” does make sense in isolation; however, upon closer listening, a split seems to occur after “Make your water break,” with a separate vocal take of “in the Apple Store” being attached. By separating the distinct topics and sounds within the verse, it’s possible to discern two smaller, more coherent verses that have been combined. Separating them yields:

i got this pregnant snake
make your water break
Sink or swim, who fucking cares, cut the birth cords

and:

stay surrounded by long hairs
a plethora of maniacs and spiral stairs
in the Apple Store

Both become clearer individually. The first verse becomes analogous to the album’s release (expanded upon in the full song breakdown). The second verse refers to Apple consumers as “long hairs” (a term for Californian hippies), Apple stores being known for their extravagant glass spiral staircases. Interestingly, these two sets of lines and meanings retain a rhyme scheme and consistent form even after separation, both with an ‘AAB’ scheme, and their third lines slant rhyming with each other (AAB CCB). The way they are combined preserves the “snake,” “break,” and “hairs,” “stairs” rhymes by maintaining their relative positions within the mashed-up lines. It also capitalizes on the “cords,” “store” slant rhyme, which might have been missed had the two sets remained separate. By combining two vocal takes rather than writing a mashed-up verse and rapping it in a single take, the emphasis and flow of each set are preserved, albeit fragmented, in the final product. “Break” feels and inflects like a line ending, even in the middle of the combined line.

Why combine these two sets? Beyond creating a stronger overall rhyme scheme from two weaker ones, the meanings are now juxtaposed. Ride compares a dark, idiosyncratic analogy of this album’s release to the way the “plethora” of maniacs consume Apple products. Like Death Grips, Apple possesses a distinct aesthetic, is known for loyal and passionate consumers, and adheres to a no-compromise progressive design/composition philosophy. Whether one appreciates or understands the album, Death Grips has severed the birth cord of The Money Store. Perhaps, like water breaking prematurely in an Apple Store, the album was unleashed upon the world.

Through this technique, Death Grips creates two verses within the space typically occupied by one, achieving the multiple viewpoints characteristic of Picasso. These viewpoints, or lyrical concepts, are superimposed in a single word painting, adding a kind of fourth dimension to the lyrics. This is akin to how the facial features of the woman in the orange beret and fur coat in the Picasso example are presented as our viewpoint revolves around her head in the stationary, two-dimensional painting.

Corrigendum 17th Oct. 2021:

When originally writing this breakdown throughout 2018 and 2019, I genuinely, randomly chose this lyrical passage from Hacker just as a generically interesting sample that would serve for a breakdown like any other lyric. I had no preconceived idea of where it came from, what it referenced or what it meant, and the Cubism angle I used came naturally as I listened to, researched and considered it.

Now nearly a full decade after the song’s release, I believe for the first time ever, a member of Death Grips has openly and transparently discussed the meanings associated to one of their lyrics. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, Pitchfork have published an article of favourite albums from various music acts central to the publication, released in that time frame. In it, Zach Hill names U.S. Maple’s 2001 album, Acre Thrills and explains some of their influence on Death Grips.

Astonishingly, the exact lyrical passage I used for my example above is explained by Zach, about how the lyrics recount his first time watching the group U.S. Maple perform live in 1999, opening for Pavement. At the time he had described their performance as like “a big pregnant snake on stage squeezing all the air from the room and doling out oxygen when it hissed”, ‘long hairs’ is a reference to their first album ‘Long Hair in Three Stages’, and ‘Spiral Stairs’ is a nickname of the second guitarist of Pavement.

Given my interpretation’s place in the larger context of this breakdown, I’m not inclined to view it as any less valid. This new information serves to prove just how cryptic any Death Grips lyric might be, given the task of finding any meaning, it is best kept in mind just how futile it would be to try and extract the story of Zach watching U.S. Maple in 1999 from that particular passage and with no prior knowledge, by only literal and figurative deduction of word meanings.

I thought it important to add this reflection from a member of the group that comes during a time when Death Grips as a music project is viewed by fans largely as defunct.

“As a group, we’re perceived in large part as male or very aggressive, but we don’t think about those things. There is no gender to this group. It’s androgynous. But we know that perception. Peoples’ hangups with sexuality, gender, and nudity– it’s similar to how I feel about organized religion. It’s toxic and poisonous to the human mind, and the development of humans in the modern world. In our own modest way, through our artwork, that’s what it represents: pushing past everything that makes people slaves without even knowing it.” – Death Grips for Pitchfork

Track-by-Track Breakdown: Diving Deep into The Money Store {#track-by-track-breakdown-diving-deep-into-the-money-store}

The preceding analysis aimed to provide an overview of the album’s context and some insight into Death Grips’ broader style for those unfamiliar. From this point forward, each song will be analyzed to provide slightly more specific meanings and relationships. The intention is to explore interesting points rather than to over-analyze or offer definitive interpretations of every line, which would be overly lengthy and restrictive of individual interpretation.

Lyrics provided are sourced from the Death Grips website and contain numerous spelling errors and often don’t precisely match the song’s structure. My assumption is that these represent shorthand versions of the lyrics as initially written, often phonetic, reflecting Ride’s unique vocal delivery, which can sometimes sound Caribbean or African influenced. It appears that edits during recording and production created the discrepancies between the final product and the website lyrics. Despite these imperfections, these are the closest to official lyrics available. Lyric websites rely on user submissions, and given the subjective nature of interpreting Death Grips’ lyrics, using the official source, despite its flaws, seems most appropriate for this breakdown. In certain instances, layout adjustments have been made, primarily shifting line breaks to align with Ride’s delivery rather than the original formatting, aiming for clarity without significantly altering the original context. Lyrics are indented and colored blue, with the subsequent paragraph offering analysis.

Get Got: The Deranged Getaway {#get-got-the-deranged-getaway}

Samples: Papito, Iba one – Music from Saharan Cellphones, Vol. 1 – Yereyira

“Get Got” launches the album with a loose and deranged getaway narrative, fragmented through the perspective of someone severely mentally ill, intoxicated, or both.

The music video is quintessential Death Grips: homemade and raw. It feels almost like a parody, primarily featuring shots of Ride in various locations, gesturing and lip-syncing the lyrics, resembling stereotypical rap videos. However, unlike typical rap videos, this one’s aesthetic is rough and dark. Many shots are poorly lit, with no apparent consideration for composition or structure. They clearly utilize basic camera equipment, heavily incorporating cheap, glitchy digital effects. Three main shots are recurring: Ride sitting in a chair in the middle of the road in Chinatown, San Francisco; walking nearby in the dark Stockton Tunnel; and waving police lights at night in front of the Sacramento Capitol building. The rest consists of unintelligible footage or brief shots of similar elements in other locations. It feels parodic because it builds upon classic Hip-Hop music video tropes but breaks them down to their core and disjointedly reconstructs them. Simply put, they likely had no concrete plan, grabbed whatever camera was available, and filmed what they perceived a rap video should be in California.

Still frame from the "Get Got" music video showing Ride sitting in a chair in the middle of a street.

One of Death Grips’ more eclectic samples, Yereyira, originates from Music from Saharan Cellphones, a compilation series from which Death Grips sampled four tracks throughout this album. Compiled from Mali, these volumes showcase music popular in communities surrounding the Western Sahara Desert, shared and distributed via Bluetooth on mobile phones in a physical peer-to-peer network. However, between the release of the two volumes, extremists took control of the region and banned music. Having explored major label distribution, a Deep Web-based Alternate Reality Game (ARG), and album release via torrent, Death Grips’ interest in alternative and unconventional music scenes and release strategies is undeniable. Considering their recurring presence throughout the album, these fragmented Saharan Cellphone samples are integral to The Money Store‘s sonic DNA.

get get get get
got got got got
blood rush to my
head lit hot lock
poppin off the
fuckin block knot
clockin wrist slit
watch bent thought bot
tail pipe draggin
volume blastin bailin
out my brain red light
flash dem stop i smash
abraxas, hydroplane, massive
catch this flight flow
rainin madness
mastered mine and laced
the ave wit black cat
fish tailin waves of stratus
curb right ta far left lane

The album’s opening verse immediately establishes a potent tone and method that persists throughout. In its own way, it describes speeding in a stolen, hot-wired car, mounting the curb, music blasting, running a red light, smashing through a stop sign, burning rubber and leaving a cloud of smoke (“stratus”), and swerving into the wrong lane.

drilled a hole into my head
pierced the bone and
felt the breeze
lift my thoughts out
dem sick bed
wit a pair of crow
skeleton wings
know nothin since then
it seems
been floatin through
the nexus threadin dreams

This final verse contains an intriguing reference to trepanning, one of the oldest documented surgical procedures, involving drilling a hole in the skull to release evil spirits. A perhaps overly literal method of opening one’s mind, it seems analogous to Ride writing and vocalizing his lyrics, as if the ideas revealed here are the “crow with skeleton wings” blown from the “sick bed” of his mind.

A clearer understanding of the song’s narrative emerges when reading the verses in reverse order. Starting with Ride trepanning himself, he ends up “floating through the nexus threading dreams,” losing his sanity and, like a werewolf (“lycanthropic manic cycles”), awakening in a rage and heading to the nearest city. Here, he further dissociates from reality, sleep-deprived and manic, finding a bar to get blackout drunk. Then, we find him in the opening lines, engaged in a crazed chase from imagined threats. This theme of paranoia stemming from sanity’s erosion is woven throughout the narrative lyrics. Attempting to grasp it all at once is futile; it’s a raw stream of consciousness, expertly written from the perspective of someone losing grip on reality. This approach defines the modus operandi of the remaining lyrics.

The Fever (Aye Aye): A State of Insane Violence {#the-fever-aye-aye-a-state-of-insane-violence}

Similar to “Get Got,” “The Fever” delivers fragments of insane violence with abstract visual imagery. This lifestyle or behavior is designated “The Fever,” described literally as a sickness or mental illness.

Samples: Casio Computer Co., Ltd. – Sounds Effect 88

The music video opens with an idiosyncratic night shot of Ride hanging by his fingertips from an unusual door frame, seemingly leading into empty space from the second floor of a building (located at the north corner of J and 20th streets in Sacramento). The video primarily consists of a live performance of the song by the group, however, the already low-quality footage is disorientingly edited. It rapidly scales to different sizes, transitions abruptly, crops in on Ride’s face, and frequently switches between a fixed perspective and digital stabilization relative to Ride’s exaggerated movements. Filters are applied, causing elements to fill with static, colors to distort, and contrast to dull, creating the impression of watching a semi-corrupt file fleetingly transmitted through an illegal pirate internet network.

The sample is simply one of many sound effects available on Casio keyboards. Recording and building upon this effect, rather than using the keyboard in a traditional musical instrument manner, is an intriguing concept.

aye, aye, pass the dro my way
or no way twenty fou no
25-8

These lines introduce the phrase “25-8,” which recurs throughout the album. On the surface, it’s an exaggeration of “24-7” (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), emphasizing something so constant and intense it transcends typical time limitations. This likely alludes to The Beatles’ song “Eight Days a Week,” which carries a similar meaning. It also connects to a 25g 5/8 needle, a common size for self-injections of insulin or steroids, thematically fitting the track and album. Finally, 25/8 (25 divided by eight) is an ancient Babylonian approximation of Pi, used in architecture. While an interesting connection, its relevance to the song remains unclear. In context, the term is used as: “Twenty fou- no, twenty five eight,” as if he initially intended to use the common idiom “24-7” but corrects himself to escalate it further. This stream-of-consciousness style places you directly within Ride’s mind, rather than simply listening to him rap.

fuck it
upside down in a
soft top bucket
screamin
shred it

These lines contain a reference to John Berendt’s novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The relevant line from the book is:

“It’s like my mom always said: ‘Two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it.’’

In some ways, these lyrics could be viewed as a sequel or expansion of the narrative aspect of “Get Got.” However, this time, the jarring, fragmented insanity that was previously pervasive now constitutes the core of the track. The John Berendt reference, “upside down in a soft top bucket,” evokes the aftermath of a car crash in a soft-top convertible, fitting seamlessly into the events of the previous song.

by any means
necesserated
blade cut me
sewer drain grated
bubonic plague
spreaded faceless
lurking in the deadest spaces
on your knees, black goat anus
christo anti clan of shameless
came ta whip those
into shapeless
here we go, devastated
here we go…

This verse presents a very dark set of spiritual/occult references, perhaps suggesting a blood sacrifice ritual, being trapped (“grated”) in a sewer, and the spread of the “Black Death”/Bubonic Plague. The Black Goat is also a significant symbol in Satanism, representing fertility or vitality, though a black goat specifically can symbolize bad luck or a bad omen. It directly links to three particular symbols tattooed on Stefan Burnett: two of Baphomet (associated with the Knights Templar, also referenced elsewhere in the album), and H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon Gate via the deity Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods), featured several times throughout the Lovecraft Mythos.

diamonds scrapin the marrow, out my core
whos in the mirror
whos at the door
someones there
wasnt there before
ceiling connected
to the chord
pull it, pull that shit

i got the diamonds, scrapin,
sidin, wastin my life
in altered states dem
back it up, i got the fever

The imagery of “diamonds scrapin’ the marrow out my core” is brutally harsh and viscerally descriptive of presumably injecting methamphetamine or heroin. It evokes a gruesome image, perhaps of a coroner scraping a glittery buildup of crystal and marrow from hollowed-out veins or even bones. Whether “chord” is intentionally misspelled for “cord” (like a musical chord), or simply an error among many, is unclear. Similarly, “sidin'” reads as though it should be “slidin’,” suggesting the “diamonds” sliding through veins. However, it could also be an interpolation of a separate meaning of “siding,” like a side effect or taking sides. All of this culminates in a particularly dark ending for the track, presumably depicting a chair being pulled from under Ride, with the cord around his neck attached to the ceiling.

Lost Boys: Outsiders on the Edge {#lost-boys-outsiders-on-the-edge}

Samples: Death Grips – Live from Death Valley – Fyrd Up

If “Get Got” introduced Ride’s perspective as a violent, detached manic state, and “The Fever” metaphorically described this state as a literal fever, then “Lost Boys” offers a less abstract depiction of a group of people in this state, the “lost boys.”

Death Grips are not the first in Hip-Hop to sample themselves, but they do so more frequently than usual, both in The Money Store and consistently since. Beyond self-sampling, they also reuse samples across multiple releases and even sampled themselves in remixes for other artists’ songs, creating potential remixes of samples of samples. The sample in “Lost Boys” originates from Live from Death Valley, a more obscure EP released shortly after Exmilitary. The sampled song, “Fyred Up,” contains three notable references. First, the title itself, Fyred Up, with the alternate spelling of “fire” obviously inspired by Stefan Burnett’s previous project, Fyre. Second, a self-reference in the lyrics: “told rigor mortis grips,” rigor mortis being the post-mortem stiffening of muscles, potentially offering insight into the name Death Grips and one possible interpretation. Third, these lines from “Fyred Up”:

are you sure that it’s tonight
cause if it’s not I might get got
the complication of your system
unexpected, don’t wanna be the victim

“Fyred Up” loosely explores being outside “the system,” falling victim to societal rejection, expressed through the phrase “you might get got.” This concept, this mental state or position, has been consistently conveyed throughout The Money Store, providing the title for the opening track, “Get Got,” and defining the phrase itself.

(lost boys)
other side of da tracks
scuzz outsiders
nothin ta loose
strike of midnighters
lost boys

The common idiom “wrong side of the tracks” appears in the second line, colloquially referring to the “bad” side of town. “Tracks” also alludes to the inflammation or vein damage resulting from chronic intravenous drug use. These first three songs collectively dissect “getting got” in terms of how it occurs, who it affects, and, most importantly, what it feels like.

Blackjack: Gambling with Reality {#blackjack-gambling-with-reality}

Samples: No confirmed samples discovered.

The lyrics of “Blackjack” are similarly styled to the preceding tracks, this time incorporating descriptions of ripping people off and theft, using Blackjack and gambling analogies.

The music video features an interesting intro not present in the regular song version. The visual is a color-changing Clonazepam pill, a benzodiazepine used to treat seizures, accompanied by a background sample resembling a depression medication advertisement. This intro lasts only a few seconds before transitioning to the regular song. The main video is framed as if viewed through a porthole, interestingly, this frame is the outer bezel of a floor light, taken from a picture that later became the cover for The Powers that B album. Different versions of this picture are also visible in the music video for “I’ve Seen Footage.”

Still frame from the "Blackjack" music video, framed within a circular border resembling a porthole.

shawshank the box
cant be contained
man came ta pick the lock
empty the vault
and leave no trace
sleep dont wake

This is a reference to the fictional Shawshank prison from Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, adapted into the film The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont. Spoiler alert: the plot centers around a famous prison escape. However, this reference seems inverted, describing breaking into a lockbox or safe at night while everyone is asleep.

(cant do a thing but fold)

comin from that hit me
until twenty one
makes your chips mine

high king, ace, to knees
the place put down by g’s
raisin the stakes

no need ta count the deck
i own it

These excerpts from the lyrics contain Blackjack references. Blackjack is a simple game played one-on-one against a dealer, aiming to achieve the highest card value without exceeding 21. “Hit me” and “count the deck” are Blackjack-specific terms. “Hit me” signifies requesting another card. “Counting the deck” is a system of memorizing previous gameplay to calculate the probabilities of upcoming cards. “Folding” and “raisin the stakes” are more poker-related. “Folding” means conceding your hand for the round. “Raising” the stakes means increasing the bet. However, in Blackjack, bets are placed before the round begins and cannot be altered in this way.

Hustle Bones: Lyrical Bragging and Self-Awareness {#hustle-bones-lyrical-bragging-and-self-awareness}

Samples:

Rodney O and Joe Cooley – U Don’t Hear Me Tho
Casio Computer Co., Ltd. – Sounds Effect 88

“Hustle Bones” marks a shift in the album where the lyrical perspective becomes more lucid. While previous tracks felt like unfiltered expressions of insanity, “Hustle Bones” is more of a self-aware boast from Ride to the listener.

The music video presents another iconic Death Grips concept: placing a camera and drugs inside a spinning clothes dryer. The opening shot is initially disorienting, making it difficult to discern the viewing perspective as the camera spins with the machine, appearing fixed while a pile of cannabis flies around. Besides cannabis, they also place stacks of money and an open beer inside. For a few seconds, what appears to be an actual canine gimp mask, similar to the one on the album cover, is also visible. With the camera fixed to the machine’s door, it occasionally swings open, revealing Ride exaggeratedly rapping along, as if waiting for the dryer cycle to finish.

Still frame from the "Hustle Bones" music video, showing a camera inside a spinning clothes dryer with cannabis and money.

Sampling a Hip-Hop song, excluding self-samples, is unusual for Death Grips. This is the only instance on The Money Store. The sampled track is fairly typical of early 90s Hardcore West Coast Hip-Hop, bearing a similar relationship to Death Grips as explored previously with the N.W.A. verse. It’s worth noting the album from which this track originates, Fuck New York, titled due to their frustration with New York critics’ bias toward the East Coast, which they felt was hindering the careers of many West Coast rappers.

hustle bones comin’ out my mouth

The meaning of this recurring line is a subject of ongoing debate. Some interpret “bones” as money, suggesting they are paid for their music, and Ride’s vocals mean his income originates from his mouth. Others propose that “hustle bones” are the lyrics themselves, the fragmented remnants of a past lifestyle he no longer leads, these memories and lyrics being the only remnants left behind, like a skeleton.

eons beyond the line never crossed, by dem
punks livin soft while i ride that bomb
dr. strangelove into the sun
look no hands megatons rode like man
we can’t lose no shit, no shit

This references Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The Cold War satire famously concludes with a recalled but uncontactable B-52 pilot riding his nuclear weapon down to the surface, inadvertently triggering a doomsday machine designed to eradicate humanity. A Megaton is a unit of measurement, in metric SI units representing 1 million metric tons (ton = 1000 kilograms). In this context, it refers to TNT equivalency, indicating the energy released in an explosion. If the weapon Ride is riding to the ground has megatons of TNT equivalency, it’s likely a nuclear bomb, releasing approximately the same energy as several million tons of TNT upon detonation. The entire verse imagines a line never crossed by “punks living soft,” with Ride being “eons beyond” that line by riding a bomb into the sun. “Megatons rode” describes this action but can also be interpreted as the past tense form of “Ride.” If he was “Ride,” he is now “rode,” consumed by the bomb.

I’ve Seen Footage: Paranoia and Hyper-Awareness {#ive-seen-footage-paranoia-and-hyper-awareness}

Samples: No confirmed samples discovered.

“I’ve Seen Footage” presents an almost conspiratorial account of witnessing too much “real shit,” being hyper-aware but paranoid to the point of losing touch with reality. The song is known for its use of “noided,” a meme within the Death Grips fanbase, a contraction of “paranoided,” an unusual past participle form of “paranoid” that encapsulates the song’s essence.

The music video is unique and revealing, consisting solely of a rapid succession of images chronicling the world from Death Grips’ perspective. Many are taken in their signature “cursed” style, in the dark with the flash on, appearing to narrate a Death Grips tour. They feature numerous shots of the members traveling, setting up, or rehearsing live shows, setlists, other music video scenes, shopping malls, airports, planes, backstage areas, and more.

Montage of stills from the "I've Seen Footage" music video, featuring various images including live performance shots, backstage scenes, and seemingly random photographs.

While many images are indecipherable or lack context, some frames are noteworthy: photos of an early show utilizing a guillotine prop, a gold bar, Lady Gaga posters in various locations, drugs, what appears to be Zach Hill’s old home address on a package, early concept artwork for future releases Government Plates and The Powers That B, the police lights Ride waves in the “Get Got” video (possibly on a shelf in Stefan Burnett’s house?), dead animals, and Stefan inscribing “Death Grips” in numerous locations. Many other frames have become popular memes, possibly due to or related to the rise of “cursed” memes. Listening with headphones, turning up the volume, and relaxing focus while watching the video creates an intense hypnotic effect, drawing you into their world. This is fitting as they are essentially creating footage from the sum of their shared experiences touring and the shady activities they engage in, a literal version of the lyrics’ content.

“The line “I’ve Seen Footage” was from a conversation I had with this street-person dude in Sacramento named Snake Eyes. A friend of ours recorded him on the porch in a conversation– he didn’t know he was being recorded. He was all fucked up on drugs and shit, just rattling off all this crazy information. He was talking about structures on the moon. I mean, I talk about those things, too. So we were talking about moon structures, and Snake Eyes says, “I’ve seen footage! I’ve seen footage of it!” And I was like, “That’s good!””– Zach Hill for Pitchfork

This encounter clearly inspired not only the title but the entire song. The verses, in particular, sound like they could be spoken by “Snake Eyes,” a drug-addled street wanderer.

whats that
cant tell
hand held dream
shot in hell
deep space ghetto (streets)
show me somethin
i aint seen before
mystery hind that
death door

Ride cannot discern “that” because it’s like a dream in hell filmed on a mobile phone. The only thing he hasn’t witnessed yet is what lies beyond death.

got a no-no goin, one time
creeps up behind me
over my shoulder
turn around try to see
but its nowhere
noided, noided
static on my blindside

“One time” is slang for police, originating from the idea that you should only glance at them “one time” because prolonged eye contact attracts attention. Ride feels they are creeping up on him, but upon turning, they are not there. The last line perfectly summarizes the song: as if his peripheral vision is filled with static, fuzzy and indistinct, making him feel like he’s being followed, he’s “noided.”

whats the science on
flyin that high

This sounds like the rambling of a fake moon landing conspiracy theorist, ironic given the song’s inspiration from a conversation about lunar structures. Both “noided” and this distrust of perception reappear in the album. “Noided” can serve as a filter for interpreting the remaining lyrics. If a lyric is difficult to understand, keeping “noided” in mind suggests that a literal interpretation might be misleading.

Double Helix: Deconstructing Death Grips’ DNA {#double-helix-deconstructing-death-grips-dna}

Samples:

The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour – Blue Jay Way
Cheb Wasila – Music from Saharan Cellphones, Vol. 2 – Hwa Heda
John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band – Mother

“Double Helix,” referencing the structure of DNA, breaks down Death Grips’ DNA to highlight their relationship with music as a whole.

Another iconic Death Grips music video, filmed entirely through the reverse parking camera of a 2007 Toyota Prius. It features Ride menacingly gesturing and rapping directly into the camera. The video evokes the feeling of being trapped inside a locked car while a deranged Ride taunts you from behind, only visible through the parking camera, adorned with the now ominous message, “Check surroundings for safety.”

Still frame from the "Double Helix" music video, showing Ride rapping into a reverse parking camera of a car.

The song includes another Music from Saharan Cellphones sample, this one from Vol. 2, officially released on January 5th, 2013, nearly eight months after The Money Store. Both volumes were compiled in 2010, so Sahel Sounds (the compiler) possessed this track for three years before release. Prior to official releases, bootleg cassette editions of these Saharan cellphone songs circulated. This particular sampled track was also used by Grimes in her 2011 DJ mix, Weird Magic Mix, credited as untitled and a collaboration with another artist featured on the Music from Saharan Cellphones compilations. The exact path of discovery for Death Grips and Grimes remains speculative, but release dates and crediting discrepancies indicate the eclectic nature of these songs and their distribution at the time. Death Grips clearly sought samples from far and wide. Securing major label backing likely facilitated clearing ambitious samples. While obtaining clearance for a Beatles sample is not easy, Exmilitary also contains ambitious samples but remains officially unreleased as a “mixtape,” suggesting Death Grips either cannot or choose not to clear them.

Death Grips have discussed their connection to The Beatles:

“For whatever reason I had a vision John Lennon would be a big fan of Death Grips.

Oh man! Thank you very much. They’re [The Beatles] often a topic in the music that we make. The way they did their shit and how they went about making their music through stages of development. At the same time highly conceptual. We talk about The Beatles all the time, how we want to be The Beatles of Rap. I say that without arrogance, it is just something to aspire to.”– Death Grips for The Source

Their choice of “Blue Jay Way” as a sample appears deliberate. Uncharacteristically for The Beatles, it specifically references Los Angeles:

There’s a fog upon L.A
And my friends have lost their way
We’ll be over soon they said
Now they’ve lost themselves instead

Perhaps these lines, in their own way, resonate with Death Grips’ lyrical style, despite being relatively straightforward. The song is set in a house on Blue Jay Way, in a Hollywood Hills neighborhood where streets are named after birds, where George Harrison was staying when he wrote it. The sampled song is also referenced in the lyrics for “Double Helix”:

be back when you think im gone
blue jay way, dont belong
double helix phoenix from beyond

The reference can be interpreted in several ways: perhaps George Harrison felt he didn’t belong on Blue Jay Way, or Death Grips wouldn’t belong in that area of L.A., or perhaps the sample itself feels out of place in a Death Grips track. Considering this and “Blue Jay Way” being among The Beatles’ more unsettling songs, it’s a fitting way for Death Grips to acknowledge one of their aspirations, implying that The Beatles are part of Death Grips’ DNA.

The track opens with these descriptions:

bangin bones on roland jungle
rottin chicken skeletal system bombin
unidentified genre abductor
hit it from the back formula fucker
hooded executor of cookie cutter
cant wait ta pull dat trigger
shut gunner

These are all descriptions of Death Grips’ music production process. Roland, for example, is a Japanese company producing various electronic musical instruments, likely including a Roland keyboard or sample pad used in this album’s production. “Jungle” likely refers to the electronic genre, with which they share elements, but their version is “rotten.”

This is Death Grips’ DNA, their double helix. They are the unidentified genre abductor, they “fuck the formula.” The “hooded executor” line is intriguing. Typically, one would expect “hooded executioner,” the figure who releases the trapdoor in hangings. However, note the distinction between “executioner” and “executor.” Ride clearly says “executor” in the song. An executor is someone who carries out a defined task, usually appointed to oversee a will after someone’s death. Both terms are rooted in “execute,” meaning both to justly kill someone (the hooded executioner) and to perform a task (the executor of the will). In a sense, an “executioner” is a type of “executor,” and the meanings merge, yielding two interpretations:

Death Grips are the hooded executioner of cookie-cutter music, twisting and subverting formulas, unlike those who construct music like building blocks from pre-established ideas.
They execute (create or perform) cookie-cutter music. This is relevant considering their sample usage and genre combinations (“genre abductor”) contributing to Death Grips’ compositional style. They are “hooded” because even if it’s “cookie-cutter,” it remains uniquely dark and twisted.

The reality is likely both. Like many aspects of this album, meaning shifts depending on perspective. Death Grips “execute” cookie-cutter music, and they also “execute” it in the other sense.

(so you really wanna know how i freak it)

This hook repeats throughout the song. “Freak it” is a verb the band seems to identify with, recurring in interviews and several times in this album’s lyrics, notably again in the next track, “System Blower,” which explores similar themes. “Freak it” was defined in 2007 on Urban Dictionary as: “to do something really well; improvise musically; rock hard; making a cool song; being original,” which aligns with Death Grips using the term to describe their music-making process at least five times.

“The production is definitely a huge part of the aesthetic, what is the process for making the “beats” on this record?

We just freak it out…work the graveyard shift.”– Zach Hill for Coolehmag

This track acts as an invitation into their process, a glimpse into the minds behind Death Grips.

System Blower: Music as Anarchy {#system-blower-music-as-anarchy}

Samples:

Venus Williams grunting
Vancouver Skytrain acceleration sound

“System Blower” describes playing their noisy music so loudly it destroys the sound system, drawing a parallel to riot, anarchy, and dismantling societal institutions.

“For example, in the song “System Blower”, there’s this part that goes, “WA-WA-WA-WA-WA,” and the drop is the sound of Venus Williams screaming when she hits a tennis ball. It was in a video we found on YouTube. The only things we sampled were things like that, things from everyday life. We all carry around camcorders; we’ll record sounds with digital cameras and use those sounds on our records, with a real disregard for sound quality. We’ll build something around something that’s just fucked– like, you just shouldn’t use it. But there’s a majestic quality to that rawness. When people talk about how our music is like rap music, but punk, I think they’re talking about our use of instrumentation like that.”– Zach Hill for Pitchfork

Zach Hill leaves little room for misinterpretation by explaining the eclectic, non-musical samples. They take elements from the world around them, often unexpected, and twist them into something unrecognizable and dangerous. It’s about reframing all aspects of life and music to reveal something new. This sampling philosophy is clearly crucial to the album’s concept.

yeah we came to blow your system
you know what im sayin
kill it or die
braggin about how you had it all dialed
well whats up now
when your shit is

The opening line immediately establishes the song’s double meaning. “Blow your system” refers both to a sound system and an organized system of institutions. The recurring verse’s last line, “when your shit is…,” foreshadows a recurring hook in the final song, “Hacker.” The full line becomes “When you come out your shit is gone.” Given “gone missing,” “blown” can likely be interpolated, as each instance of this line is followed by examples of their music and its intention: to “blow the system.”

stupid dopefiend beat low hung
blood spray all over da death stomp drums
scum worshipping speaker ripping
pun2k weight holding heretics
boundary reapin frequency
freakin out till we’re like that track sound so sick

This introduces “pun2k weight,” seemingly a 21st-century form of Punk. This concept is further explored in the track “Punk Weight.” Another instance of “freak it” appears here, as “freakin’,” though it sounds like the more common expletive.

just for kicks cant fuck wit dis
sadomaso-kiss my fist
suck my dick, its not cool
im too sick, what time is it
system blower, systems over

deep in da klink base
cut straight to da chase
like a triple shot of 180 proof
kill-o-watts riots audio violence
breaks your windows and takes all da loot

“Sadomaso-kiss my fist” is a pun, fittingly inserting “kiss my fist” into sadomasochism, a portmanteau of sadism and masochism. These derive pleasure from giving and receiving pain, often in a sexual context, directly relating to the album cover.

The Cage: Mental Confinement {#the-cage-mental-confinement}

Samples: Death Grips – Death Grips (Next Grips)

The broader concept of this track is somewhat ambiguous. Given the title and lyrical moments, it’s closest to “The Fever,” but instead of illness, Ride’s mental state is likened to a cage. Alternatively, “The Cage” could have a more literal meaning, a prison or incarceration in general, as certain lyrics suggest a character evading the law.

hopes that mo cash will help you cope
sorry ta tell ya.. but it won’t
how do i get out then?
you dont

These lines illustrate both the literal and metaphorical cage.

The hook features interesting wordplay:

(i say kill it like ya, you say hate it
kill it like ya hate it
kill it like ya hate it
i say arrrgghh you say cant take it
i cant take it i cant take it)

It’s a parody of the tacky, overused crowd interaction technique employed by musicians, but with Ride also voicing the audience, using a different inflection. The first round is clear: Ride says “kill it like ya” as a cue to respond with “hate it.” In the second round, “arrrgghh” is the cue, but when the line arrives, “arrrgghh” and “I” are interchanged, shifting from call-and-response to Ride simply stating “I can’t take it.” Throughout the song’s repetitions, Ride alters pronunciations and intonations, using “arrrgghh,” “I,” “Ow,” and “Oh” in the “__ can’t take it” phrase, each time subtly shifting the meaning.

terrified by da way a basilisk
come out him skin so fast
not the first wont be the last
barrel of my gun down the hatch
187 deep throat chokin
eat dis fourty-four magnum dic

A Basilisk is a mythical snake capable of killing with a gaze. The line seems to reference it shedding skin, like any snake, but also bears similarity to subsequent lines. A comparison can be drawn between the graphic sexual imagery of forcing a gun down someone’s throat and a snake shedding skin. “187” seems to be a Springfield rifle model, and a .44 Magnum is a famous handgun, long considered the world’s most powerful.

rainin blood, burnin paper
a j acksons catchin vapors

Andrew Jackson was the seventh U.S. president and appears on the US $20 bill. “Burning paper Andrew Jackson catching vapors” would thus mean burning money, perhaps even a joint rolled with a $20 bill.

Punk Weight: The Evolution of Punk {#punk-weight-the-evolution-of-punk}

Samples:

Cheb Wasila – Music from Saharan Cellphones, Vol. 2 – Hwa Heda
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced – Manic Depression

“Punk Weight” is relatively abstract compared to the rest of the album. No clear narrative or message is explicitly conveyed; lyrics are presented as glimpses. The title “punk weight,” stylized as “pun2k weight,” is used repeatedly and ties much of the song together, seemingly representing Punk for Y2K (the millennium starting in 2000), an evolution or “answer” to 1970s Punk.

This Music from Saharan Cellphones sample is the only one on the album containing discernible lyrics, spoken in Moroccan Arabic and reportedly difficult to decipher. Interpretation is challenging, but it appears to be a Gnawa song (from the compilation area) detailing a narrative between two individuals, based on aspects of Sufism. Whether Death Grips could interpret this song and the sampled line is debatable. Given their approach to other samples, aesthetic reasons are more likely.

Only one recorded interview with Stefan Burnett exists. He said little, but used one question to name Jimi Hendrix as a favorite musician before stopping himself, reiterating his focus on internal inspiration and disinterest in idolizing others. What, then, is the significance of using a twisted, nearly unrecognizable sample from Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression” in this track? The answer is likely vague but lies in the scene surrounding Jimi Hendrix and 1967, the year his landmark album was released. 1967 was a pivotal year for Rock and Roll/Psychedelic music. Hendrix’s Are You Experienced, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Doors’ S/T, Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow were all released within months of each other, ushering in a new, overtly drug-influenced style: Psychedelic Rock. However, the first and perhaps most influential edgy, drug-infused Rock and Roll album of 1967 was The Velvet Underground & Nico. Punk as a genre hadn’t yet formed, but TVU&N is widely considered the first Proto-Punk album, an early example of openly linking heavy drug use and perverted sex to Rock and Roll. All Punk, Psychedelic, Experimental, Underground, or Alternative music owes a debt to it, including Death Grips.

“I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!”– Brian Eno for the Los Angeles Times

Death Grips’ samples are often obscure and seemingly meaningless. Connecting Jimi Hendrix to this song’s meaning, suggesting the sampled album somehow represents Punk, might be a stretch, but it is likely an acknowledgment of Death Grips’ deepest roots.

warholian nightmare
storm the gates
25 8, twelve gauge pun2k weight
(25 8 pun2k weight out yo flesh)

Another connection between TVU&N and this song lies in the Andy Warhol reference above.

“Actually, we kept talking about the ‘Warholian nightmare’ while we were making The Money Store. We kept talking about this record as directly relating to certain things about Andy Warhol, if we had to choose an artist. It’s the same, in our minds, as pop art.”– Zach Hill for AQNB

Pop Art, a movement starting in the 1950s, was in some ways a reaction against Fine Art and Abstract Art. Often ironic, it typically features images from popular culture, particularly advertising, decontextualized and visually mimicking mass production through techniques like screen printing. Warhol took familiar visual imagery from outside typical art contexts and re-presented it, shifting artistry from purely visual skill to the image’s context and intent. It challenged perceptions of both popular imagery and the fine art context usually exclusively granted to it. This new representation of ideas is shared by Death Grips. These dark and eclectic aspects of existence are taken and reprocessed into synthetic sounds placed in unexpected spaces. Like Warhol turned a supermarket shelf into a gallery, Death Grips formed these sounds and concepts into an album.

Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" (1962), a quintessential example of Pop Art using mass-produced imagery.

Andy Warhol – Campbell’s Soup Cans – 1962 Image via MoMA

This connection is significant because Andy Warhol produced and managed The Velvet Underground during the Proto-Punk era. They were integrated into his collective of “Superstars” and involved in several of his projects. The “Warholian nightmare” concept, influencing Death Grips’ album creation, helps define “pun2k.” As Warhol was integral to Punk’s formation, leading to Death Grips, they become the nightmarish, abstract version of Pop Art. Both Punk and Pop Art defied convention, but by now, they are less subversive. Death Grips, however, remain contrary to current musical norms (especially at The Money Store‘s release), and their use of Punk and Pop Art concepts fuels this contrarianism, creating “pun2k.”

The album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico, featuring a banana designed by Andy Warhol.

The famous album artwork for The Velvet Underground & Nico designed by Andy Warhol

This elucidates “pun2k,” but “pun2k weight” remains ambiguous. The word combination is unclear, yet it’s repeated like a mantra. “Weight” often feels redundant, removable without altering the meaning. However, at times, it links “pun2k” to another concept, like in “25 8 pun2k weight out yo flesh,” referencing Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. “A pound of flesh” is a harsh payment demanded by Shylock for loan default, becoming synonymous with extortionate lending, and the “pound of flesh” payment as an unpleasantly large or impossible debt. Similarly, “25-8” reappears, tied in as “25 8, twelve gauge pun2k weight,” sounding like a boxing weight class (unlike Heavyweight or Welterweight). Considering Ride’s earlier derogatory use of “punk” in the album, it seems like the weight of a lighter, weaker person. Twelve gauge is a common shotgun ammunition gauge, denoting barrel diameter. “Gauge” and “weight” might be synonymous here, like wire gauge (diameter) being described as its “weight.” Other usages include: “smoke pun2k weight for breakfast…” and “scale richtor pun2k weight of dis sound.” In these, “pun2k” seems redundant, with meaning focused on “weight,” like the Richter scale for earthquake intensity, and “smoking for breakfast,” suggesting cannabis weight (grams or ounces). Looking at all instances, “pun2k weight” is diverse in meaning, suggesting a state (like “noided”) but also flexible enough for mass, always related to that state.

end beat limbo, baba spitting
blood in slow mo, la la chimney

In several languages, “Baba” is a respectful term for older men or “father.”

off in the rhythm like
beta in the bong

“Off in the rhythm” references “flow,” the heightened creative state often associated with cannabis. Beta is a brainwave frequency range related to cognitive tasks or focused mental activity, altered by cannabis.

mic spray kyrlon

“kyrlon” is a misspelling of Krylon, a popular spray paint brand. This line references a clip in their Adult Swim segment where Ride spray-paints a microphone red (RED MIC=MC RIDE?).

ask samo how he flipped that material girls pancakes..
as zydeco copper kettles

Speaking of Andy Warhol, this line references another underground New York artist, active in the late 1970s. SAMO was a well-known graffiti tag across Manhattan, here referring to its co-creator, Jean-Michel Basquait, who became famous before dying at 27 (joining Jimi Hendrix in the 27 Club). “Material girl” is pop star Madonna, who was in a relationship with Jean-Michel Basquait before her music career took off. Zydeco is a Blues-based music genre from Louisiana. The line seems to describe their relationship as loud or unpleasant (like a copper kettle), but the pancake flipping and Zydeco references remain unexplained, making this one of the album’s most confusing lines.

“Punk Weight” also established a link that became fully apparent years later: the relationship between Death Grips and Icelandic artist Björk. The exact origin and timing of their connection is unknown, but around The Money Store‘s release, Björk was releasing guest remixes from her album Biophilia, and Death Grips remixed “Sacrifice” and “Thunderbolt,” incorporating a small production element also used in “Punk Weight.” Shortly after, committed to completing their next album NO LOVE DEEP WEB, they canceled a tour and withdrew from public life, reportedly facing difficulties. Björk reached out to Zach Hill. Their largest collaboration is Niggas On The Moon, part of the double album The Powers That B. Björk is featured on all 8 tracks, with instrumentals largely composed of cut-up samples of her singing, some from her then-unreleased album Vulnicura. She also occasionally includes Death Grips in her DJ sets, typically playing “Guillotine” or instrumental tracks. It’s easy to imagine Björk as a Death Grips fan and vice versa, but the more one listens to both, the more they seem complementary, as if Death Grips are perhaps Björk’s antithesis.

“i am proud to announce my vocals landed on the new death grips album ! i adore the death grips and i am thrilled to be their “found object”. i have been lucky enough to hang and exchange music loves w/ them and witness them grow !! epic : onwards !!”– Björk on Death Grips

Fuck That: Disjointed Chaos and Defiance {#fuck-that-disjointed-chaos-and-defiance}

Samples: Yeli Fuzzo – Music from Saharan Cellphones, Vol. 1 – Abandé

Likely the album’s most lyrically disjointed song, it lacks a consistent narrative or discernible meaning beyond Ride’s loud “fuck that.”

third rail
over one nine breakers
lit throat, cut creator
hung from dem nail
hang em high
savior faire
trans-siberian epic
trek through dat next switch
set it off the roglyphic
jackal headed dawn of the under
check it, check one
you can suck it
till i get disgusted

“Third rail” references the power delivery system for trains, where a live third rail runs alongside the running rails. “One nine breaker” sounds like CB radio slang, typically used by American truck drivers. Channel 19 is most common, and “Breaker” signals a desire to speak on a channel, in this case, 19. Here, common syntax is reversed, perhaps suggesting ending communication rather than starting it, supported by “over,” denoting phrase end in radio communication. It also evokes a circuit breaker, cutting an electrical circuit due to excessive current, usually from a short circuit, linking the CB slang to the train power system. These first two lines nearly depict someone attempting suicide by lying on train tracks, electrocuted by short-circuiting the third rail, tripping the circuit breaker and “ending communication.” “Savoir faire,” French for “know how,” describes someone situationally adept, “streetwise.” The Trans-Siberian Railway, running across Russia between Moscow and Vladivostok, is famously long and “epic.” “Through dat next switch” seems to reference a railway switch, enabling trains to take multiple paths. The suggestion is that Ride’s path to change is a long, cold journey, severing communication and tripping the circuit breaker along the way. “Roglyphic” is a contraction of Hieroglyphic, and “Jackal-headed” refers to Anubis, an ancient Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife.

get off mine i got that juice
noo style cut your brain stem
as my combat boots grind your head
to the cadence of this dreath stompin
mu-sick as fuck contagion
wagin war with all you knew..
bitch

mossberg ballistic flux massive
my shure beta 58a hazmatted
pump pump slugster radioactive
ride through a mine field laced wit black magic
straight from the mayday…
naw fuck that (ONE)
broke off its axis, polar shifted
granite knock made ta off
every last bitch on this planet
fuck that, naw, fuck that

This excerpt has some notable details. “Dreath” seems to be “death” misspelled, sounding like “death” but likely a deliberate error. Ride’s delivery is particularly harsh, describing it as “death stompin’ music,” but with lyrical cubism. “Mu-sick” is split across lines, allowing “sick” to start a new line and “mu” to preserve the “juice,” “boots,” “mu,” and “knew” near-rhyme scheme. “Mu” could reference 4chan’s music board /mu/, where Death Grips were active early on, posting leaks and partially hosting their ARG. Mossberg is a gun manufacturer, and Slugster is a shotgun model. Shure makes audio equipment, and the BETA 58A is a microphone, possibly Ride’s actual microphone. The imagery is striking, likely Death Grips at their most vividly self-descriptive. Many have tried to describe Death Grips colorfully, but none as effectively as these lyrics. A ride through a black magic-laced minefield, combat boots grinding brainstems, lyrics fired point-blank through a radioactive shotgun, everything known disintegrated as Earth is knocked off-orbit in a “sick as fuck contagion.”

dealer push your wig all the way back
head wear your face like a yamakulapse
never can tell where you’re at
eyes stuck on the sky always gettin jacked
tryin ta lookin the mirror like..

“Yarmulke” is Yiddish for the Jewish skullcap, more commonly known as Kippah in Hebrew. Ride puns by combining it with “collapse” to describe ripping someone’s hair back so hard the scalp collapses and face slides up like a Yarmulke, eyes looking skyward.

“Fuck That” is raw Death Grips: violent tribal drums, glitchy production stripped to a minimal framework for Ride’s visceral vocals, all for a simple statement: if it’s not Death Grips, “fuck that.”

Bitch Please: Unapologetic Confidence {#bitch-please-unapologetic-confidence}

Samples:

Death Grips – Exmilitary – Thru the Walls
Death Grips – Exmilitary – Takyon

This track is another loud self-brag from Ride, directed at the listener.

when shit goes down
ill be there
wit my hand on my gun, and my eyes on the road
ghost ridin ta hell
fuck if i care…
who wanna catch my droze
give a fuck blood
i aint goin nowhere
templar night and day, live an die by the code,
code of the street
how ta stay in the zone, how i own it
and freak it to da base of da bone

“Droze” is colloquial, perfectly describing Ride with a hard-to-define meaning, suggesting ultimate, omnipotent confidence and power.

“Templar night and day” is a pun. The Knights Templar were a Medieval Catholic Military order prominent during the Crusades. Ride likens his “25-8,” “pun2k,” “night and day,” “live and die by the code of the street” “droze” attitude to a Crusades-era Templar Knight.

cuz i run this lik like dogtown
ripped that raw shit like none other
low down dirty shit shot off this hip
death grips, mothafucka

“Dogtown” was an area in Santa Monica, California, where the Zephyr Competition Team, a skateboarding group, hung out in the 1970s, popularized by Lords of Dogtown and Dogtown and Z-boys.

Like “Fuck That,” this track speaks for itself. While songs like “Hacker” and “Punk Weight” merit intense breakdowns, the best way to appreciate “Bitch Please” is to listen to it very loudly.

Hacker: Meta-Commentary and Digital Culture {#hacker-meta-commentary-and-digital-culture}

Samples:

Blue Devils – The Ditty
Death Grips – Live From Death Valley – Poser Killer
M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – Midnight City

This track features a full trifecta of Death Grips sample types: an obscure YouTube video, a self-sample, and a well-known mainstream song, unrecognizably twisted, all in one track.

Despite their considerable output since its release, “Hacker” remains one of their most popular and accessible songs, filled with quotable lyrics, some becoming memes within the Death Grips fanbase. It is a crucial and defining Death Grips track.

The lyrics are somewhat of a departure, reminiscent of Weird Twitter, particularly the word salad style pioneered by Dril, rearranging cultural elements from mainstream to obscure into non-sequiturs. Ride fully embraces his interpretation of Weird Twitter, and much like Dril, his clamor has come full circle, producing a twisted, genius meta-comparison of themselves and The Money Store‘s release to technology, the internet, and popular culture.

The track opens with:

goin back to Tangier
with some jordans and a spear
post-chrisitan shit
post chicken or the egg addiction shit
pass the sherm stick
neo-reality
be the freak you wanna see
just dont follow me
im on a journey to
the center of three
grab your fucking chain
and drag you through the bike lane
while everybody’s like no

There’s much to unpack. Tangier is an ancient Moroccan city (nearly 3,000 years old), a historically significant link between Africa and Europe, and a diverse international cultural hub attracting the wealthy, diplomats, artists, and spies—a place where anyone can blend in. Jordans are the famous Nike shoe line. The third and fourth lines pair together, attempting to distill a philosophical worldview. Christianity defined accepted views on life, happiness, and purpose in Europe for a long time. The “chicken or the egg?” question is also ancient, representing a major philosophical dilemma. In our current ethos, many have moved beyond these factors defining life. Science can answer “Which came first, chicken or egg?” (literally), and various forms of rationality are popular relative to Christianity, not only spiritually but also ethically, philosophically, and psychologically. A sherm stick is a cigarette dipped in liquid PCP, a potent dissociative hallucinogen known for potentially inducing psychotic, dangerous behavior.

These references are amalgamated with dynamic vernacular and styles. The group’s 4chan and Deep Web links are well-known, and memes popular in these communities are clear influences. The non-sequiturs “Goin’ back to Tangier With some Jordans and a spear” and “Post chicken or the egg addiction shit” aren’t necessarily existing memes, but their no-context, literal finality is always tinged with irony, reminiscent of existing memes, especially the Ebonics style used in Black Twitter.

This verse feels analogous to several things: the group and album in a meta sense, the album’s release, and Death Grips’ current presence on the internet, popular culture, and music culture. It conveys something like “[We’re] goin back to Tangier…,” “[This is] Post-Christian shit,” correlating to the album’s creation and meaning. Listening to it feels like having Ride grab your bike chain and drag you through the bike lane while everyone else watches helplessly. The second half of this verse was expanded upon earlier in the Picasso comparison. Combined with these contexts, it shows how the 2nd and 3rd verses operate similarly, with similar meanings. Here are illustrative lines from the next two verses:

you’re an intern on wikileaks
most loved therefore most hated

Wikileaks is an extremely divisive organization, with very little neutral ground in public opinion, much like Death Grips.

game changer
reclusive aggressive
yinyin’ and yanging’
noided

“Game changer” is clear, and proven true for this album. “Reclusive aggressive” is a fitting wordplay on “passive-aggressive.” Yin and Yang are a dualistic Chinese philosophical concept representing change. Yin and Yang represent opposite ends of a spectrum where interchange occurs; Western philosophical equivalents include “Light & Dark,” “Positive & Negative,” or “Good & Evil.” They illustrate how integral “opposites” are, complementing each other and being mutually dependent. “Yinyin’ and yanging'” is an unusual participle Ride created, perhaps describing his wild, erratic thoughts and behavior, even literally mood swings. It also contextualizes the album artwork’s heavy dualistic elements, clearly related to the Yin and Yang symbol, the Taijitu:

The Yin and Yang symbol, Taijitu, representing duality and balance.

info warrior jack the hacker
the rolling stoner profit on disaster

Early in Death Grips’ history, they were more than a trio. “Info Warrior” and “Mexican Girl” were previous “ancillary” members. During this period, real names were mostly unused, and “Flatlander” was an umbrella term for the production side, now often misattributed to Andy Morin. “Info Warrior” seemed to focus on visual work and has a co-production credit on Exmilitary. The name’s context in these lyrics also suggests Info Wars, the American far-right conspiracy website and Alex Jones’s segment. The next line references The Rolling Stones.

my existence is a
momentary lapse of reason
got the DNA of Gothic lemons
shred it thirteen times
out of eleven

A nihilistic reference to Pink Floyd’s album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. A Gothic lemon would be dark and sour, fittingly describing Ride’s DNA. The last two lines resemble the proverb “fall down seven times, get up eight,” but twisted. Regardless of the scenario, Ride will always be “shredding it” (also mentioned in “The Fever”). 13 is widely considered unlucky.

burmese babies under each arm
screamin beautiful songs
the cray cray ultra contrarion
havin conversations with your car alam

The first two lines suggest kidnapping or a celebrity philanthropist adopting Burmese babies. Their beautiful songs are juxtaposed with a car alarm. Ride is the “cray cray ultra contrarion.” “Cray” is now dated slang, short for “crazy,” briefly repopularized in 2012 by Jay-Z and Kanye West in “Niggas in Paris.” “Contrarion” (contrarian) is slanted to rhyme with “car alarm” and “arm.” The ultra-contrarian disagrees with everyone and everything. A literal meaning: Ride steals your car and drives off, talking to himself with the alarm blaring. This image carries a deeper meaning. Comparing screaming Burmese babies to this scene also serves as self-description. Listening to Death Grips’ “beautiful songs” is like conversing with a car alarm.

Virtually every line of this track can be interpreted as self-analogous through cultural references, contrived dualities, convoluted spellings and pronunciations, philosophy, and style.

“Lady Gaga is an example of making the most out of going major with universally positive results. The way she’s inspired people to embrace themselves as individuals in an age of such gross conformity and harsh ignorance is admirable.”– Death Grips for L.A Record

Here, Ride slightly rephrases his admiration for Lady Gaga:

gaga cant handle this shit

If she inspires individuality against conformity and ignorance, even with major label backing, Death Grips takes it so far that even she can’t handle it.

prodigal, fuck that nautical
teachin bitches how to swim

“Teachin’ bitches how to swim” is one of Death Grips’ most enduring lines, often missed in its song context due to bridge repetition. Like “25-8” in “The Fever,” this line is stream of consciousness. Ride starts to describe himself as “prodigal” but corrects it to “nautical” (“Good, wait no, Great”), as if “nautical” is a superior form of “prodigal” due to phonetic similarity. Having established his nautical prodigality, “Teachin’ bitches how to swim” becomes a simple brag: he’s so impossibly reckless no “bitch” can keep up. Later, the idea continues:

(teachin bitches how to swim)

now backstroke
through your k-hole
dont run
ya might slip
the table’s flipped
now we got all the coconuts bitch

So prodigal that being in a k-hole is trivial, he instructs simply backstroking through it, a confident but blind and vulnerable movement. Ketamine is known for bad trips, impossible to resist, hence the need to cruise through and go with it, why Ride warns “don’t run, ya might slip.” His inflection and delivery in these first two lines are unusual, sounding like a low-budget cooking show or infomercial presenter. The theme continues to the coconuts reference, used as currency in a surreal nautical/island setting.

The album concludes with the hook repeated throughout the song:

i’m in your area
i know the first three numbers
i’m in

Beyond the meta-allegory, the track intersperses the “Hacker” concept: identifying, tracking, and taking someone down, or the underground infiltrating the mainstream, likely the listener by Death Grips. This also reflects Death Grips’ music release strategy: YouTube leaks ahead of official release, their deep web ARG, torrents, and spread across /mu/. “I know the first three numbers” suggests the US telephone area code. Knowing the first three digits of a phone number roughly locates someone. An IP address or ZIP code could also fit this context. “I’m in your area” is a repeated phrase in EPMD’s “Da Joint,” not the first EPMD reference in Death Grips’ lyrics. “Takyon” from Exmilitary name-drops them and references their song “Strictly Snappin’ Necks.”

Many have erroneously linked “Hacker” to Ryan Trecartin’s experimental film I-Be Area. Death Grips and Ryan Trecartin’s relationship was established with @DeathGripz, an outtake from The Money Store published in Adult Swim’s 2012 single series, sampling dialogue from the film. Claims of further links between The Money Store and I-Be Area, including Stefan and Ryan attending art school together, Stefan and Zach appearing in the film, and “Hacker” lyrics being lifted from the dialogue, appear unfounded after research. Linking the film’s title and its repeated use of “area” to “I’m in your area” from “Hacker” is valid, but similar meaning surrounding “area” in the film and song isn’t clear. The most valid claim is that “Hacker” and I-Be Area share a theme, particularly information delivery and the internet, each informing the other’s convoluted chaos. I-Be Area is nearly two hours of frenetic sensory overload, exhausting and unsettling, like Death Grips in film form. The film’s overarching concept is often simplified to “what if internet communication translated to real life?” which feels accurate while watching. “Hacker” certainly addresses internet information transfer, but beyond that, verbal connections are difficult to articulate.

“Hacker” sets itself apart from the album, being the least aggressive and most accessible, one of the few with lyrics not solely “glorifying the gut.” It is more direct in conveying concepts like individuality, crucially tying it down to conclude the album.

Conclusion: The Unanswerable Meaning of The Money Store {#conclusion-the-unanswerable-meaning-of-the-money-store}

If the question remains, “What is The Money Store actually about?”, by now we can answer somewhat in Death Grips’ own terms: the id of Hip-Hop, the 21st-century answer to 20th-century Punk and Pop Art, and the free-thinking, open-ended empowerment of individuality.

I once heard Nick Cave explain his appreciation for Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche,” despite being unable to articulate its meaning. He stated that its dark incomprehensibility placed it outside reasonable understanding, and this “spongy gap” between the song and our minds allows infinite possible bridges, enabling countless interpretations. All music, art, or even experience can be described similarly, but The Money Store occupies a comparable position, existing and tapping into a place particularly far removed from language, outside of Plato’s cave. To perceive it, it must traverse an infinite space to reach our minds. Thus, the simplest explanation for The Money Store‘s meaning is that there is no single answer. It resists description. The album can be linked to any topic or meaning, uniquely personal to each listener. Whether intentional or not, the album’s “meaning” is to discover your own meaning through listening and experiencing its energy.

“I bought a pickaxe at the Home Depot in Glendale,” he remembered. “I concealed it in a guitar case, and I went down to the star. I put on some headphones; I was listening to Death Grips, which is some high-energy, ridiculous music. It gave me the energy I needed to tear through the star.”– Austin Clay for GQ on destroying Donald Trump’s walk of fame star

“That’s when I realized that Death Grips was my meth. I put that on and I can do anything and do it efficient as fuck. … Nico, Travis and I legit almost died because I decided to put on ‘Stockton’ and burn rubber at a red light, which resulted in my car spinning down at street at 60, 70 miles per hour at an intersection in Los Angeles around 2:45 on a school day. Not one scratch, no one hurt, not one car touched. I don’t know what it was, but it led me to believe that I had a grip on death (sorry, I had to say that).”– Tyler, The Creator on Death Grips

“Would you describe your music as surreal?

F: Partially… Death Grips are an outlet and a way to connect with people through something other than conversation or analyzation, to create something we don’t have words for yet.”– Andy Morin for The Quietus

Sources {#sources}

Quotes are linked directly within the text. Images are screenshots from music videos or sourced where appropriate. Lyrics are from the Death Grips website. Several interpretations and references were inspired by or derived from Genius annotations (use with caution). Discogs is invaluable for objective information regarding music releases. WhoSampled offers the most comprehensive sample list. Frank Delaney’s podcast Re: Joyce, a word-by-word deconstruction of James Joyce’s Ulysses, inspired this breakdown’s format. Finally, the Death Grips subreddit is a source for unconfirmed/newly discovered obscure samples and interesting leads.

Decoding Death Grips’ The Money Store: An In-Depth Album Analysis

Contents:

Profile & Publishing Details {#profile-publishing-details}

Analysis Abstract {#analysis-abstract}

The Album Artwork: A Visual Manifesto {#the-album-artwork-a-visual-manifesto}

Compositional Breakdown: Deconstructing Hip-Hop {#compositional-breakdown-deconstructing-hip-hop}

Interpretational Abstract: Cubism in Lyrics {#interpretational-abstract-cubism-in-lyrics}

Track-by-Track Breakdown: Diving Deep into The Money Store {#track-by-track-breakdown-diving-deep-into-the-money-store}

Get Got: The Deranged Getaway {#get-got-the-deranged-getaway}

The Fever (Aye Aye): A State of Insane Violence {#the-fever-aye-aye-a-state-of-insane-violence}

Lost Boys: Outsiders on the Edge {#lost-boys-outsiders-on-the-edge}

Blackjack: Gambling with Reality {#blackjack-gambling-with-reality}

Hustle Bones: Lyrical Bragging and Self-Awareness {#hustle-bones-lyrical-bragging-and-self-awareness}

I’ve Seen Footage: Paranoia and Hyper-Awareness {#ive-seen-footage-paranoia-and-hyper-awareness}

Double Helix: Deconstructing Death Grips’ DNA {#double-helix-deconstructing-death-grips-dna}

System Blower: Music as Anarchy {#system-blower-music-as-anarchy}

The Cage: Mental Confinement {#the-cage-mental-confinement}

Punk Weight: The Evolution of Punk {#punk-weight-the-evolution-of-punk}

Fuck That: Disjointed Chaos and Defiance {#fuck-that-disjointed-chaos-and-defiance}

Bitch Please: Unapologetic Confidence {#bitch-please-unapologetic-confidence}

Hacker: Meta-Commentary and Digital Culture {#hacker-meta-commentary-and-digital-culture}

Conclusion: The Unanswerable Meaning of The Money Store {#conclusion-the-unanswerable-meaning-of-the-money-store}

Sources {#sources}

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