There Existed an Addiction to Blood

Here, they’ve given their most focused project, all while exploring the darkest corners of humanity over envelope-pushing industrial production. With a carefully constructed chaos, Clipping. throw us into their torturous musical realm and boldly ask us to find the art in fear.

Disturbing, but also enthralling. [Jan 2020, p.23]

The usual and worn out horrorcore lyrics resemble now parts in “found poetry,” left to their own devices. They are no longer pastiches made by humans but cosmic shards of meaning. The tracks recorded with Benny the Butcher and Elcamino (“La Mala Ordina”) and with La Chat (“Run For Your Life”) are hints at what’s possible when our-worldly lyrics paired down with otherworldy music.

There Existed An Addiction to Blood is shocking, insightful and unlike any other hip hop release this year, and quite possibly Clipping’s most impressive work to date.

What Clipping have done on ‘There Existed An Addiction To Blood’ is show that hip-hop doesn’t need to keep to convention to be gripping and visceral; refusing to be placed in stasis for the sake of chart success, the group deserve all the plaudits that will come their way.

With There Existed An Addiction To Blood, Clipping have artfully seized upon the viscera of the horrorcore genre, creating an album which is both disheartening and sonically intriguing. It is yet another successful experiment for the group and one of the eeriest examples of modern hip-hop to date.

Daveed Diggs' rapid-fire verses are precise and unflinching, detailing gruesome scenes with pinpoint accuracy. Much of the album, particularly the interludes, is filled with field recordings, giving the sensation of being on the run and uncertain of one's fate.