Death Grips say they purposefully tried to get out of their deal Epic Records.
Speaking to Pitchfork, they were asked the situation with the label. The band’s Zach Hill said:
A lot of things have to be determined that aren’t that interesting– figuring out how we’re going to [move forward]. And whether we’re going to do that ourselves, or who’s going to do that with us, based on our actions of purposefully trying to get out of the record deal we’re exiting right now.
Death Grips, were sensationally dropped from the label on November 1. The US hip-hop group had made their second album available for free download after a disagreement over release dates. The leak was presented along with a deliberately controversial album sleeve: the album title scribbled on an erect penis.
The rift deepened on October 31, when the band published a purportedly official email from the label asking them to remove their self-leaked ‘No Love, Deep Web’ from the internet.
The label issued a statement on dropping the band. It read: “Epic Records is a music first company that breaks new artists. That is our mission and our mandate. Unfortunately, when marketing and publicity stunts trump the actual music, we must remind ourselves of our core values. To that end, effective immediately, we are working to dissolve our relationship with Death Grips. We wish them well.”
The band reportedly leaked the album due to disagreements over release dates, with the label preferring that the band continue to promote preceding LP ‘The Money Store’. Hill explained that they cancelled tour dates to complete ‘No Love, Deep Web’ instead as it was “way more in tune with what we were experiencing as people in life”.