clipping., "Blood of the Fang" (Sub Pop)

Any musician who samples something off Sam Waymon's soundtrack to 1973 avant-garde religious-salvation drama/vampire thriller Ganja & Hess, has my undivided attention and unlimited devotion. Such is the case with "Blood of the Fang," the new single from LA hip-hop mavericks clipping.'s forthcoming album, There Existed an Addiction to Blood (out October 18). The track proves that rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes are continuing to stretch the parameters of what constitutes hip-hop.

The song's main samples—an Isaac Hayes-like singer imbuing the line "there existed an addiction to blood" with deep gospel soulfulness and chilling child-choir chants—contrast with the pressurized bass grunts, sadistic, methodical beats, and Diggs's Doseone-on-dexies delivery. Director Lars Jan's video nods to Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton's 1967 ordeal of being cuffed to a hospital gurney while having his gunshot wound treated. Diggs drops speedy, assonance-laced bars that poetically call for a renewed revolutionary spirit the Panthers manifested to combat today's racial oppression. Sonically and lyrically, "Blood of the Fang" is the epitome of that radical fervor.