There Existed an Addiction to Blood

Last updated
There Existed an Addiction to Blood
Clipping. - There Existed an Addiction to Blood cover.png
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 18, 2019
Genre
Length68:37
Label Sub Pop
Clipping. chronology
Splendor & Misery
(2016)
There Existed an Addiction to Blood
(2019)
Visions of Bodies Being Burned
(2020)
Singles from There Existed an Addiction to Blood
  1. "Nothing Is Safe"
    Released: August 14, 2019 [3]
  2. "La Mala Ordina"
    Released: September 12, 2019 [4]
  3. "Blood of the Fang"
    Released: October 3, 2019 [5]

There Existed an Addiction to Blood is the third studio album by American hip hop group clipping. It was released on October 18, 2019 through Sub Pop. [6] It received mostly positive reviews from music critics.

Contents

Music and lyrics

Clipping described There Existed an Addiction to Blood in a press release as a "transmutation of horrorcore", continuing that it "absorbs the hyper-violent horror tropes of the Murder Dog era, but re-imagines them in a new light: still darkly-tinted and somber, but in a weirder and more vivid hue". [7] [8] Throughout the album, Daveed Diggs describes "gruesome movie scenarios", but, according to the Financial Times journalist Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, the lyrics do not contain the "sick [humor]" and misogyny associated with the genre. [9] [10] Diggs speaks in the second person in the tracks, which Tom Breihan of Stereogum interpreted to be in order to do "everything he can to put us, the listeners, in the shoes of the victims". [9]

The album title comes from the Sam Waymon song "The Blood of Thing (Part 2) Shadow of the Cross", written for the vampire film Ganja & Hess . This song is also sampled in "Blood of the Fang".

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.6/10 [11]
Metacritic 73/100 [12]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Clash 8/10 [13]
Financial Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]
The Line of Best Fit 8/10 [2]
Loud and Quiet 7/10 [14]
Paste 8.5/10 [15]
Pitchfork 4.5/10 [16]
The Skinny Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [17]
Spectrum CultureStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [18]
Uncut 8/10 [19]

There Existed an Addiction to Blood received mostly positive reviews: aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalized rating of 73, based on 11 critical reviews. [12] Paul Simpson of AllMusic described the album's "most exciting tracks" as "downright hallucinatory" and considered that Diggs' delivery is "precise and unflinching, detailing gruesome scenes with pinpoint accuracy". [1] The Line of Best Fit 's Jack Bray hailed as "disheartening and sonically intriguing", adding that it "is yet another successful experiment for the group and one of the eeriest examples of modern hip-hop to date". [2]

Track listing

All tracks are produced by Clipping. [20]

There Existed an Addiction to Blood [6]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Intro"
1:04
2."Nothing Is Safe"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
4:57
3."He Dead" (featuring Ed Balloon)
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
  • Edmund Oribhabor
4:22
4."Haunting (Interlude)"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
0:57
5."La Mala Ordina" (with The Rita, featuring Elcamino and Benny the Butcher)
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
  • Demetrius Jackson
  • Jeremie Pennick
  • John W. Snyder
  • Sam McKinlay
5:46
6."Club Down" (with Sarah Bernat)
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
4:30
7."Prophecy (Interlude)"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
1:11
8."Run for Your Life" (featuring La Chat)
4:52
9."The Show"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
3:04
10."Possession (Interlude)"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
2:10
11."All in Your Head" (featuring Counterfeit Madison and Robyn Hood)
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
  • Sharon Udoh
4:29
12."Blood of the Fang"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
  • Sam Waymon
4:49
13."Story 7"
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
3:40
14."Attunement" (with Pedestrian Deposit)
  • Diggs
  • Snipes
  • Hutson
  • Jonathan Borges
  • Shannon Kennedy
4:46
15."Piano Burning" Annea Lockwood 18:00
Total length:68:37

Track 15 is omitted from cassette copies of Addiction, likely due to its unusually long runtime. [21]

Charts

Chart (2019)Peak
position
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [22] 3
US Independent Albums (Billboard) [23] 8

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References

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  2. 1 2 3 Bray, Jack (October 14, 2019). "Clipping return with a strikingly eerie hip-hop masterstroke". The Line of Best Fit . Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  3. Quinlan, Keely (August 14, 2019). "Clipping. – "Nothing Is Safe"". Stereogum . Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  4. Helman, Peter (September 12, 2016). "Clipping. – "La Mala Ordina" (Feat. The Rita, Benny The Butcher, & Elcamino)". Stereogum . Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  5. Breihan, Tom (October 3, 2019). "Clipping – "Blood Of The Fang" Video". Stereogum . Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  6. 1 2 "There Existed an Addiction to Blood by clipping. on Apple Music". Apple Music . Retrieved October 18, 2019.
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