Death Grips Dropped by Epic Records
Death Grips have been dropped from their label, Epic Records, in the fallout from releasing their album NO LOVE DEEP WEB for free months early without their label’s approval, Pitchfork reports. The rap group released NO LOVE DEEP WEB online October 1st, saying Epic had pushed back the album’s release to next year. At the time, the group said their label had yet to hear the album. “The label will be hearing the album for the first time with you,” they tweeted. They have since deleted their Twitter account.
Death Grips claimed Epic shut down their site after they released the album, complete with graphic phallic imagery on the cover. The band then posted a confidential letter from Epic’s legal department on Facebook on October 31st, which they told Pitchfork was to prove their actions weren’t a series of publicity stunts. The label was not amused.
“Epic Records is a music first company that breaks new artists. That is our mission and our mandate,” said Epic in a statement. “Unfortunately, when marketing and publicity stunts trump the actual music, we must remind ourselves of our core values. To that end, effective immediately, we are working to dissolve our relationship with Death Grips. We wish them well.”
“It was all very psychedelic and surreal,” drummer Zach Hill told Rolling Stone in April regarding the group’s signing with Epic. “You could see right away that they were genuinely feeling the music on a crazy level . . . It was very apparent to us that they were not gonna fuck with it.”