120.) Death Grips - Exmilitary (2011)
If there was ever a truer reason to slap a warning label on music, it's because of Death Grips. Exmilitary was released a year after the turn of the noughts, showcasing an abrasive, raw sound that started a growing trend in underground hip-hop. Death Grips mold a few different genres together exceptionally well.
Hip-hop for one, industrial, noise. Experimental above all though. With the primal sound they've sculpted and helped shape, their ever-growing fan base has stayed loyal, no matter how eccentric their antics have been, and it started with this mixtape. It's comprised of great lo-fi guitar samples (Spread Eagle cross The Block, Beware, Klink) , while one track leans heavy on the industrial side (Culture Shock), and the rest rely on experimental noise (Guillotine, Takyon, Blood Creepin, etc.)
With Flatlander and Zach Hill handling the production duties, and MC Ride spitting his (sometimes) topical lyrics, they've created a very hostile, almost toxic record that's inexplicably listenable. MC Ride screams, and by the end of the mixtape, he's rapped about sex, drugs, schizophrenia, and ultraviolence. He seems as though he's going for a very deranged man look, terrifying almost. Not to mention the beats laid down for Ride. This mans paranoid vocal delivery and his lyrics, coupled with such cut-throat, truly abrasive production adds to one of the best mixtape's I've ever heard.
All In All, Exmilitary off the bat starts with a pre-recorded track of Charles Manson, explicitly spewing his hatred of having to go to work to make money. "I roll the nickels and dimes". Listening to it indirectly sums up Death Grip' career.