I first became aware of clipping., the experimental hip-hop group of actor Daveed Diggs, producer William Hudson, and Jonathan Snipes, in the thick of the pandemic, with the album Visions of Bodies Being Burned. Their off-kilter, ambitious, sometimes very trippy horror beats and wicked-fast rhymes from Diggs felt refreshing and dangerous—reminding me of someone like Open Mike Eagle—the needed jolt to bring me back into hip hop. I vowed to myself to check out the rest of their discography and popped on the debut self-titled album and was immediately enraptured by this very exploratory vibe to hip hop, which, to me, felt very new. But life got in the way, and I never really revisited clipping.. Not or lack of trying either.
So when I heard about Dead Channel Sky, this new sci-fi concept album from clipping. I was quite ready to be brought back down the rabbit hole. Afro-futurism, cyberpunk, and conceptual/experimental rap? Sign me up. The first track I heard was “Change the Channel,” which felt like a musical homage to The Prodigy’s “Breathe,” but offered more of a rave punk/ techno sound for clipping. The rest of the album continues this vibe, diving into the dystopian themes with Diggs’s masterful storytelling, which he has undoubtedly learned from a successful acting career. This is conveyed in tracks like “Dominator,” or “Keep Pushing.”
But as a whole, this album is somewhat lacking in terms of connection or concept and boy is it hefty, at 20 songs. While they offer some cool futuristic notions, the songs are kind of surface-level, not really diving into them or punching them as hard as they can. Take “Code,” definitely influenced by William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the book that spawned the genre “cyberpunk”—with its rhythmic beats, synth work, and strings, only really scratches the surface. And Diggs’ more singer-songwriter vocals here leave out all convention of the hard hip hop that could have been.
But then we have “Dodger,” probably the strongest track on this thing, about people trying to dodge authoritarianism with wicked-fast rhymes and scratchy techno breakbeats. It’s ridiculously catchy and dangerous–all you want from a clipping track—and the outro, with synthy strings and Diggs showing just how fast he can rap, is gorgeous. “Polaroids” was also quite enjoyable, feeling more like a spoken word poetry session or an audiobook rather than a rap track. Diggs certainly has a way to him.
But to be honest, not many of these tracks felt like repeat listens to me and despite how ambitious this record is, clipping. has done thhis better before, so I wanted a bit more from them.
