Los Angeles, CA

In the hands of clipping., rap is a launchpad for total sonic experimentation. Their chopped-and-spliced approach pairs unrelentingly brutal beats with unrestrained lyricism delivered at a mile-a-minute.

Comprised of William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes and Daveed Diggs, clipping. immediately enthralled listeners with their self-produced 2013 debut, midcity. Only five months later, the trio signed to Sub Pop and dropped their debut studio album, CLPPNG, in 2014. Since then, they have released two EP’s, a scorching live album, several remix collections, and four more studio LP’s. 

All three members of clipping. bring impressive pedigrees to the table. Snipes composes film scores and was a member of the electronic music duo Captain Ahab, while Hutson has released experimental noise music under the names Rale, Anthracite, and Tattered Syntax. One of their most intriguing collaborations was crafting the score for the 2013 documentary Room 237.

Diggs, meanwhile, is a Tony and Grammy-winning actor, whose motormouthed rapping brought both Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson to life in the musical Hamilton. His rhymes piece together fragmented images with esoteric references — and are never written in the first person. 

From contributing a track to The Rick and Morty Soundtrack to collaborating with Rivers Solomon on an award-winning science fiction novel, the breadth of clipping.’s work is vast. Their latest record, 2025’s Dead Channel Sky, moves the needle from straight horror-core to electro-drenched cyberpunk rave-ups, with guest appearances from Aesop Rock and Calgary’s own Cartel Madras. 

As Diggs himself likes to declare, “It’s clipping., bitch.” Show up, get down, and experience what rap can really be.