This summer, music writers everywhere tried their hand at deciphering what the hell LA-based crew clipping. (MC Daveed Diggs and producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson) were doing on their album CLPPNG. Was it experimental noise rap? A scathing commentary on modern hip-hop? A Death Grips knock-off? They should have just asked.

No, they don’t hate rap

Jonathan: There’s a preconception amongst fans that we clearly must hate rap music, which is why we’re doing what we’re doing. Whereas, we think we’re just making rap music. We believe we are contributing to it, rather than acting against it or trying to fix it or change anything about it. Fans often want to bond with us over how much we hate mainstream rap music, which isn’t true at all.

Daveed: Right now, I’m totally obsessed with Kevin Gates. Also, Young Thug, I’m loving everything that’s coming out from him right now. Everything that he does is so much more abstract that anything we do, and the fact that we are kind of put in this avant-garde rap category and he is not is shocking. It speaks a lot to how open the genre is right now.

No, bookers don’t know what to do with them

Daveed: My favorite part of touring is seeing who we’re booked with. Getting to be on a rapper tour is cool, that’s never happened to us before. We’ve been on bills with rappers, hardcore bands, punk bands. I don’t think people really know where to put us. If there’s gonna be other aggressive music that night, then we get to play.

Yes, sounding that noisy and anarchic takes a lot of practice

Will: Most of our songs are very carefully laid out before we make any sounds, through conversations about what type of music we are referencing with it, what sounds we want to use. Finding that line of how far we want to take it really depends on what we thought we were doing conceptually with the track. Nothing is messy with us. We are really battling the assumption that just because it’s harsh, that it’s imprecise or it’s sloppy.

No, they didn’t bring the alarm clock that beeps through “Get Up” on tour

Will: One of the plans was to bring an alarm clock. But that particular one is Jonathan’s girlfriend, and she does have to get up and go to work, even while we’re out on tour.

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