Why do Death Grips fans hate the new Praying collab?

Also, when do orders ship???

On the heels of that Death Grips tour announcement following their 2022 reunion comes the Death Grips collaboration with the occasionally controversial, apt to be misunderstood, mostly womenswear label Praying.

The pieces in the collaboration include: a sleeping bag featuring a full-body depiction of MC Ride, a hoodie with the lyrics to “I’ve Seen Footage” (I think? I can’t remember I have to check again) screenprinted on top of the album art for Exmilitary, a shirt with the clearly on-purpose misspelling of a lyric, “To pray is to except defeat,” a Bottomless Pit bralette and thong set, a pair of Money Store booty shorts, and I think a hat and some other stuff. 

It makes sense that the fanbases of Sacramento-based hip hop hardcore band Death Grips and of the low-effort screenprint post-ironic post-Internet trad heroin chic creed of Praying would not cross-pollinate. Like, they would be a Venn diagram of just two circles, maybe just touching. And in that single point of contact exists me, and every other single person who sold out the collaboration nearly immediately after it went live.

Yes dozens of Death Grips fans (and this is probably the wrong subset of fans to look at–like the weird scum that floats to the top of soup when you cook it) took to Reddit to basically say they think it looks like ass and they don’t get it–and people on Instagram have done the same. So why do they hate it? I mean, besides the fact that the Praying brand is obviously intentionally low-effort, somewhat pricey and functions entirely on its social currency (the brand has been worn by Megan Thee Stallion, Charli XCX, they list goes on, ad nauseum), which is enough to break it into two camps–those who hate it and those who love it, which as things go when things are vehemently hated and loved, makes both respective camps hate it and love it even more, respectively, Death Grips fans just aren’t their target audience.

I placed an order two weeks ago–for the thong and bralette “Bottomless Pit” combo and The Money Store booty shorts. Because they have yet to ship, me and the other niche fans to whom both Praying and Death Grips appeal have been wondering…when will they? Many have taken to commenting on their Instagram posts–a number have commented under the picture of Beabadoobee wearing a Praying piece, and at least one person has commented on the most recent post promoting the pink version of their Trinity bikini set. I have no idea if someone has commented on the post sandwiched between these two, because it it a picture of Mia Khalifa wearing said bikini set in white, and there are far too many comments to scroll through.

This is the same “sacriligeous” bikini that landed that one Tiktok girlie in hot water–Addison Rae.

As we all know and JPEGMafia can attest to, Death Grips fans are “sheltered cracker[s] on 4Chan” who thing he look like MC Ride. Praying fans, according to the brand’s creators and their tagged Instagram pics, are mostly white girls. 

So why the collaboration at all? Why would Death Grips collaborate with the same brand that made merch for Olivia Rodrigo? Besides the rumor that Zach Hill’s girlfriend once modeled for the brand, which I don’t really care to fact check, the two obviously have something in common, even if Death Grips fans don’t get it.

Praying is low effort, obviously incendiary, if not for their shitty quality paired with stupid prices then for their insensitive-seeming oxycodone campaign, the supposedly sacriligeous bikini thing, and whatever else.

Death Grips is incendiary for making horror core which Christian moms are against and I don’t know, maybe for putting a dick on their album. Either way, I’m sure controversy does not escape them. 

If there’s anything to know, it’s that controversy drives sales. And it drives people one of two ways, and into feeling very strongly about things. 

Anywho, why do the Death Grips fans on Instagram and Reddit hate the collab? Either they don’t get it (because a, they’re not part of the target audience and b, therefore they’ve never heard of Praying and don’t understand its post-ironic religious bent), or they do, and they think it’s dumb. Either way, that drives the people that do love it (for whatever reason, maybe even just to love it because other people hate it and they love Charli XCX, like me) to like it even more.

I could say more about the trad-cath movement and the motives of post-irony and even go back and edit whatever I just wrote, but I don’t feel like it, so I’ll just leave this here. I’ll edit when orders ship.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *