Review of “Splendor & Misery” by clipping

First off, the premise of the record itself easily captures the attention of the listener. Afro-futurism has seldom ever been explored through the medium of hiphop, and especially never before in such a high profile release. While this influence is clear as day, the actual narrative of the record is much more messy. The plot itself is quite easy to follow for the first quarter of the record or so; however, it soon becomes fully lost among the script-esque structure of lyrics and rhymes. This poignant and very specific approach to lyricism, while incredibly clever and impressive, does tend to swerve into an ambiguous haze of plot structure due to it almost equating to a sensory overload.

Despite this, Splendor and Misery still manages to be a testament of Diggs and company’s sheer wealth of artistic talent. The industrial and glitchy aesthetic of the production, done by producers William Huston and Jonathan Snipes, works wonderfully with the lonely and oppressive characteristics that the subject matter of outer space is commonly associated with. Tracks such as “Wake Up” and “Interlude 2” make clever use of sonic textures ranging from radio distortion to echo intensive bass to simulate the cold and lifeless expanse of space.

Oddly enough, Splendor and Misery’s defining elements of tone are found in its almost robotic absence of character. Conventional beat structure is practically non-existent on the entire record, save for on the track “Air ‘Em Out”, which while overall is quite subdued, is considerably hard hitting when put alongside the rest of the track list. Instead, the band opts for the utilization of ambient sound effects, all having varying degrees of sonic abrasiveness. These comparisons to machinery also apply to Diggs’ performance as well. Daveed’s delivery, while practically bereft of any inconsistencies or stumbles, at the same time comes off as practically seeming robotic, bypassing charisma for machine-like accuracy.

While only clocking in at a runtime of 37 minutes, Splendor and Misery is a reasonably demanding task to listen to. As the record diverts from some of the most integral pillars of hip hop, such as conventional beat construction and MC charisma, in order to tell a space opera, Splendor and Misery is clipping’s most divisive work to date. While the album does indeed have a fair share of clever concepts, it is pretty clear that Splendor & Misery may have been a little too ambitious.

It definitely seems like Daveed Diggs has really embraced Broadway with open arms. During his time on the cast of the smash hit musical, Hamilton, Diggs was able to present his talent in a whole new medium of art, one which would take advantage of his past experience as an MC to propel a story-intensive work of performance.

When Diggs and the rest of the experimental hip hop group, clipping, would reunite to record Splendor & Misery, which the group themselves has coined as an “afro-futurist space opera told through hip hop,” the reception was quite divisive. Would this be a unique and fleshed out concept album or just Diggs and company drowning in their own ambition to create their very own Hamilton? In all actuality, I see both outcomes as true towards the final product.