Bottomless Pit Turns 10

Benjamin Kenyon

Rap/Hip-Hop Journalist

May 6 marks the 10th anniversary of Bottomless Pit, a masterpiece of an album from the band whose concert literally gave me a minor case of tinnitus: Death Grips. Bottomless Pit, like much of Death Grips’ discography, is an amalgamation of enigma and experimentation. 

A November 25, 2025, Instagram post from Death Grips quieted rumors of the group’s latest rumored disbandment, but invited new speculation surrounding the new lineup, longtime producer Andy Morin absent from the post’s sign-off (no official reason has been given, but allegations of sexual misconduct leveled towards Morin may be the answer). Fans have shown themselves to be delighted by the announcement of new music. Death Grips’ last full-length project came in 2018, when the group released Year of the Snitch. Vocalist MC Ride and drummer Zach Hill are seemingly the only two permanent members. 

Bottomless Pit sees the band incorporating many musical and lyrical ideas explored on previous outings into a lean, mean sub-40-minute runtime. The album’s title is seemingly a reference to the fictional refuge underground California where Charles Manson thought he and his Family would escape once the apocalypse set in. This, like much of Death Grips’ lore, is unconfirmed due to the band’s aversion to interviews or public appearances, but it is wholly fitting.

Intro “Giving Bad People Good Ideas” features vocals from Cherry Glazerr’s Clemetine Creevy. Cherry Glazerr’s own music is near the complete opposite end of the musical spectrum from Death Grips, and the track’s alternating between Creevy’s soft, almost eerie singing and Ride’s abrasive delivery are reminiscent of the band’s extensive use of Björk vocals on their album The Powers That B.  Follow up track “Hothead” is one of the album’s more off-kilter offerings, and its use in Donald Glover’s TV show Atlanta perfectly encapsulates the futile effort of trying to spread the word of Death Grips to unsuspecting friends. 

“Eh” is a nice change-of-pace, with Ride performing almost exclusively in a monotone in a track full of musings of indifference. The penultimate track “80808” provides many of Bottomless Pit’s (relatively) most accessible moments as it’s probably the project’s most rhythmically conventional song. Ride spends the track railing against imitators of Death Grips’ style with his signature cryptic lexicon. The outro, title track “Bottomless Pit”, is instantly hypnotic. The glitchy riff at the center of the song fills the mix completely, washing over the listener and acting as a nice palate cleanser to end Bottomless Pit. 

It’s hard to tell when Death Grips will return with the music they announced half a year ago. Up to this point in their discography, no two albums have sounded the exact same, but have maintained the authorial identity of being Death Grips products. Hopefully, they can release a project as innovative and distinct as Bottomless Pit.