clipping. – Body & Blood
Courtesy of Sub Pop
Body and Blood by clipping. is the second song off their 2014 debut studio album, CLPPNG.
Body and Blood is a track with a gritty lyrical aesthetic and an instrumental to match it with punchy distorted kick drum and a sharp bass synth. The track is about a woman who preys on lustful men, luring them with sex and proceeding to kill and eat them. The song is kind of a theme song for this woman and offers a perspective of female empowerment through this lens. A recurring theme in the track is a comparison to prostitutes and women who engage in sex work. An example is given below.
“If you a bad bitch, let ’em know you ain’t out for the dough
You want Body and Blood” -Verse 1, Daveed Diggs
I feel like the woman’s cannibalism is portrayed as a method of empowerment when compared to prostitution as the woman is using sex to get what fulfil her desires in the end while prostitution is usually demeaning and very abusive to women; in a way the tables are turned.
The instrumental strongly compliments the dark theme with noisy and erratic synths as well as thumping kick and a distorted but sharp baseline.
To conclude this blog, I strongly believe that Body and Blood by clipping., uses its experimental and noisy instrumental to lay a perfect foundation to explore lyrical content, which uses shock value to explore deeper topics regarding feminism in a truly unique fashion. I believe the elements of shock value used here are to weed out listeners genuinely interested and open-minded in exploring intricacies of feminism.
References
- Raymer, M. (2014) Clipping.: CLPPNG, Pitchfork. Available at: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19431-clipping-clppng/ (Accessed: 20 December 2023).
- Clipping. – body and blood, Genius. Available at: https://genius.com/Clipping-body-and-blood-lyrics (Accessed: 08 December 2023).