We live in a highly digitized world. It’s hard to imagine a really amazing piece of music not making it to streaming platforms. I can understand 20th-century underground records not yet making it to the World Wide Web. But, rarely does a 21st-century work not make it to major platforms like Spotify or Apple Music.
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However, that is very much the case for famed experimental hip hop group Death Grips’ debut mixtape, Exmilitary. Though, it is worth noting that the project did actually make it to iTunes before promptly getting the boot from streaming platforms everywhere back in the 2010s.
You might be able to find the 2011 album online via fan uploads. It occasionally makes appearances on streaming platforms before eventually getting taken down. The whole of the record is only (dependably) available via the band’s SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and the Third Worlds website, where it is available as a series of old-school MP3 downloads. The album was also reissued on vinyl via Ormolycka, and that release just dropped this month. Naturally, it has since sold out.
Apparently, the only song from Exmilitary that has been allowed on major streaming services is the single “Guillotine”. That song has not yet been taken down on the band’s YouTube channel, either, likely because it doesn’t contain the samples that got the band in trouble in the first place.
Why Death Grips’ ‘Exmilitary’ Got Banned From Streaming Platforms
So, why did such an amazing experimental mixtape, which has received almost universal critical acclaim, get taken down from streaming platforms? It’s a tale as old as time. The band didn’t get permission to use a wide range of samples that were used in the project, apparently.
The band members haven’t really spoken on the issue, either. So, if there was another, bigger reason why the mixtape was taken down, we’ll probably never know what it is.
But boy, are there a lot of samples used in the project. It’s not clear which samples got the band in trouble with major music streaming services, but there are over a dozen used in Exmilitary.
Charles Manson’s famed “I Make The Money Man” interview is used in “Beware”. Several Beastie Boys tracks are sampled in “Spread Eagle Cross The Block”, “Klink” contains samples of Black Flag’s “Rise Above”, and “5D” contains elements of “West End Girls” by Pet Shop Boys. Notably, “I Want It I Need It (Death Heated)” features prominent elements of “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” by Pink Floyd.
It’s not shocking that you won’t find Exmilitary on Spotify or Tidal. Thankfully, it’s still accessible through other (legal!) means.
Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Redferns via Getty Images
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