Teaser // Death Grips: YEAR OF THE SNITCH

Summary

Jokermen Podcast – Teaser: Death Grips: YEAR OF THE SNITCH

Episode Date: July 21, 2026
Theme: Playful, irreverent deep-dive tease for the Death Grips: Year of the Snitch series (exclusive on Patreon). Hosts reminisce about the album, its bizarre collaborators and visual aesthetic, and riff on cultural oddities swirling around Death Grips and Shrek in 2026.

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Main Theme & Purpose

This teaser episode sets the tone for Jokermen’s Patreon-exclusive Death Grips: Year of the Snitch series. The hosts, Evan and Jokerman, bring their trademark banter to bear on the weird constellation of collaborators, artwork, and mystique orbiting the album, zooming in on the infamous appearance of Shrek-director Andrew Adamson and the album's surreal cover art.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Andrew Adamson’s Bizarre Cameo (00:57–03:57)

• The hosts riff hilariously on the presence of Andrew Adamson—the director of Shrek and Chronicles of Narnia—in the Year of the Snitch liner notes.
  • Jokerman bewilderedly lists Adamson’s filmography: “It’s just such, like, what is this filmography? … Shrek, Shrek 2, Narnia … something called Mr. Pip starring Hugh Laurie...” (01:08–01:21)
  • They speculate about how Adamson ended up at Sunset Sound Studios recording spoken word for the track “Dilemma” (02:02), echoing Death Grips’ penchant for oddball cameos (e.g., Clementine Creevey’s accidental appearance—02:10).
• Evan sums up the allure of Death Grips’ trivia:

  “That’s one of those great little Death Grips nuggets, factoids that I don’t want to know anything more about.” (03:06)
  and “Whatever the true story is… I think it’s a more satisfying narrative experience just to imagine it ourselves and enjoy it for what it is.” (03:16)

• The whole bit sets up Death Grips’ affinity for absurd, unexplained pop culture crossovers.

2. Anticipating a New Release – Year of the Snitch’s Legacy (04:02–04:53)

• Evan and Jokerman discuss the eight-year gap since Year of the Snitch (2018), tease rumors of a forthcoming Death Grips album, and joke about which off-beat celebrity might show up next.
  • “I have it on good authority that it is this year is the year that another one comes out.” (Jokerman, 04:04)
  • Fantasizing about John Lasseter doing Death Grips intros, à la the Spirited Away DVD:

    “Hi, I’m John Lasseter and you are so lucky because you get to listen to the next album by Death Grips.” (Jokerman, 05:07)

3. The New Shrek: Visual Culture and Nostalgia (05:19–06:22)

• The “yassification” of Shrek is lamented by the hosts, who riff on the uncanny valley of recent 2026 character redesigns.
  • Jokerman:

    “It just looks like an off-model Shrek … like someone drew it from memory and it just kind of looks not right. But that’s just the world we live in now.” (05:24)

• Evan expresses total apathy toward contemporary Shrek news:

  “You cannot for the life of me get me to care one way or another about Shrek in the year 2026.” (Evan, 05:48)

4. Dissecting the Album Artwork (06:26–09:36)

• The hosts dig into the eeriness and “augmented reality” feel of the Year of the Snitch cover art:
  • Evan: “I think you’re a little unsettled by it based on comments you’ve made in the past” (06:48)
  • They try (and fail) to describe what the image depicts:
    • Mouths emerging from holes of impossible proportions, maybe on a table (07:23–07:48).
    • Mysterious hand and lost sense of scale (08:14).
    • The ongoing ambiguity is part of the appeal.
• The cover (and back cover) are contrasted to Bottomless Pit’s more photorealistic, uncanny image.

5. Personal Death Grips Memories and Release Context (09:39–11:03)

• Evan shares his personal memory of Year of the Snitch as the first Death Grips album he experienced as a new release:

  “I just moved to New York, and ... strong sense memory of just, like, up and down the subways, going all around my new hometown of New York City, listening to this album in this hot, stinking, wet summer.” (09:39–10:30)

• The hosts compare their entry points into their favorite artists’ discographies (Death Grips for Evan; Bob Dylan for Jokerman).

6. The Back Cover, Fonts, and Bootleg Nostalgia (11:08–13:44)

• The hosts lovingly roast the back cover’s design, comparing its word art to:
  • 90s mall stores, hawker stands, even “the box of a dildo” (Jokerman, 11:53)
  • Bootleg action figures conspicuously placed in questionable franchise haircut stores (Supercuts), evoking nostalgia for the “bootleg bullshit” aesthetic (13:03).
  • Evan:

    “I feel like ... there was more bootleg bullshit that kids got that was just like it looked like this … like we have Death Grips album and then it’s like Dirth Grips.” (13:19–13:44)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Evan on Death Grips’ trivia:

  “That’s one of those great little Death Grips nuggets, factoids that I don’t want to know anything more about.” (03:06)

• Jokerman on Shrek redesigns:

  “It just looks like an off-model Shrek ... but that’s just the world we live in now.” (05:24)

• Evan on Shrek apathy:

  “You cannot ... get me to care one way or another about Shrek in the year 2026.” (05:48)

• Jokerman on the cover’s surreality:

  “No, this is augmented reality of some types.” (09:36)

• Evan on nostalgia for bootlegs:

  “... there was more bootleg bullshit that kids got that was just like it looked like this ... like we have Death Grips album and then it’s like Dirth Grips.” (13:19–13:44)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:57 – 03:57: The Andrew Adamson cameo and Death Grips’ love for bizarre collaborators
• 04:02 – 04:53: Speculation about new Death Grips music and joke about John Lasseter
• 05:19 – 06:22: Wary nostalgia and indifference about the new Shrek design
• 06:26 – 09:36: Dissection of Year of the Snitch album art’s weirdness
• 09:39 – 11:03: Personal recollection—hearing Year of the Snitch in NYC summer of 2018
• 11:08 – 13:44: Back cover font aesthetics and culture of 90s/00s bootleg toys

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Tone and Takeaway

Playful, self-aware, and slightly absurd, the episode underscores Jokermen’s approach to Death Grips: delight in the weirdness without feeling the need to decode every mystery. The hosts’ interplay fuses earnest music nostalgia with tongue-in-cheek riffs on pop culture ephemera, setting the stage for a deep dive into Death Grips’ Year of the Snitch—and whatever strange cultural detritus they choose to drag along next.

Transcript

[Evan]

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[Jokerman]

Welcome back one more time to Jokerman Death Grips podcast.

[Evan]

I'm Evan July 16th. I'm in the studio with Jokerman. They're recording their latest podcast.

[Jokerman]

Is. Could it be? Is it Andrew Adamson, director of Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shrek the 3rd?

[Evan]

It does appear to be our special guest here.

[Jokerman]

Have you seen his film, his filmography, his credits? It's just such, like, what is this filmography?

[Evan]

It's Shrek, Shrek 2, Narnia, the Chronicles

[Jokerman]

of Narnia, Shrek the Third, then another Narnia movie, another one, something called Mr. Pip starring Hugh Laurie, a 2012 drama written and directed by Andrew Adamson.

[Evan]

We got to do the Mr. Pip episode before we wrap up.

[Jokerman]

Yeah. Hugh Laurie plays Mr. Pibb and then Cirque du Soule Worlds Away. That was in 2012. And then also he is on Death Grip's Year of the snitch in 2018. Spoken word on Dilemma.

[Evan]

Dilemma. I don't even know what to say on that one.

[Jokerman]

You hear about these things that happen, like on the other album, when Clementine Creevey from Cherry Glazer apparently just happened to be at the same studio in, like, the next room over. And that's how she ended up doing the opening vocal on Giving Bad People Good Ideas. But Andrew Adamson, New Zealand film director, producer, screenwriter and animator, best known for DreamWorks animated films Shrek and Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, and apparently also some of the soon to be completely rebooted Narnia movies. I don't know what he was doing at Sunset Sound Studios.

[Evan]

Sunset Sound Studios, Sunset Sound Studios, 6650 Sunset Boulevard. And maybe he was working on Mr. Pip. No, I guess Mr. Pip was 2012.

[Jokerman]

He was still working on Mr. Pip. He's working on. Yeah, the soundtrack, the Official soundtrack for Mr. Pip. Making sure it's just right.

[Evan]

That's one of those great little Death Grips nuggets, factoids that I don't want to know anything more about. Honestly, I think that we know exactly enough about this. And whatever the true story is, as to why Andrew Adamson was in Sunset Sound Studios with Death Grips that day, and moreover, why they had him record this particular intro of all things, for the song Glimmer. Whatever the story is there, I think it's a more satisfying narrative experience just to imagine it ourselves and enjoy it for what it is. Which is a delightfully unexpected little swerve, little left turn from the Boys on their most recent lp as of the time that we're recording this at least, which is Thursday, July 16th.

[Jokerman]

Year of the Snitch 2026. How long it's been a minute?

[Evan]

Eight years. Yeah.

[Jokerman]

And I have it on good authority that it is this year is the year that another one comes out.

[Evan]

It's the year of another Snitch.

[Jokerman]

Yeah. Who knows what that's going to be like? As you can probably tell. I mean, as if you've been following us so far. And even if this is just your first time dipping in based on the last few minutes of conversation, there really is no guessing about what is going to happen or not happen. Which director, producer and screenwriter of which beloved animated series is going to appear on a Death Grips album.

[Evan]

Yeah, I have it on good authority that John Lasseter has been rescued from cancellation to provide spoken word intros on several.

[Jokerman]

There's things that he used to do, like when you would like on the DVD of Spirited Away.

[Evan]

Hi, I'm John Lasseter of Pixar Animation Studios. You are lucky you get to see Spirited Away.

[Jokerman]

Hi, I'm John Lasseter and you are so lucky because you get to listen to the next album by Death Grips. You know, people are really upset about Shrek.

[Evan]

Yeah, I saw there's. They. They yassified him in the new upcoming Shrek or something.

[Jokerman]

It just looks like an off model Shrek. Like that uncanny thing of when you just see a. A Mickey or a Goofy that just looks kind of like someone drew it from memory and it just kind of looks not right. But that's just. That's just the world we live in now. We just have different looking Shrek and I don't like it. I don't like that change.

[Evan]

You know, I want to get up there with you, but you just. You cannot for the life of me get me to care one way or another about Shrek in the year 2026.

[Jokerman]

I'd like to know what Andrew Ralph Adamson thinks about Shrek's new look. Because it doesn't Seem like he's involved in this new one.

[Evan]

Yeah, it looks like. It doesn't look like he was involved in the last one either. So maybe he's been excommunicated from the Shrek franchise. Maybe we should try to get in touch with him, bring him on, extend the Death Grip series a little bit. Do a whole bonus episode on his involvement on this.

[Jokerman]

Year of the Snitch, Year of the Shrek.

[Evan]

Yeah, let's put a pin in the Shrek conversation and talk about a little bit more what we're ostensibly here to talk about. Which, yeah, is the final, again, as of this moment, proper Death Grips long playing record that has been released which has what I think is a fantastic cover. I think you're a little unsettled by it based on comments you've made in the past.

[Jokerman]

I bet to you it looks normal to the Joker that's a normal looking album cover.

[Evan]

That's right. I'm so fucked up that I think whatever it is that's going on in the COVID of this album, which I still don't quite understand, like what this is a picture of and how it was created.

[Jokerman]

We know how it was created. It was created using the computer. But yeah, I don't know what it is. It's some kind of, I guess like a plastic object. It's like a toilet seat lid or like a.

[Evan]

It looks like it's got rings on it. If you look at the bottom, it looks like it's got like cup rings.

[Jokerman]

Oh, like a table. Like a fisheye lens.

[Evan]

A fisheye lens shot of a table that maybe a dirty table, some cup rings on it. But then there are these series of glory holes, Uncanny mouths or mouth. Like they're mouths but things, but it's

[Jokerman]

holes in it with mouths on the other end. But there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 or 6. And they're. There's some that are the proportions. They don't make any sense. Like they're no, you know, there's some that are tiny, like the size of a nickel next to one that's like a lot bigger than that. But they're right next to each other. And I don't care who you are, nobody's mouth is that small.

[Evan]

And then there's a hand, a mysterious hand gripping the edge of whatever this object is. This potentially table shaped object in the top left corner which just further completely fucks up all sense of proportion and scale here. Because no one's mouth is that small. But also no one's mouth is that big in Relation to a hand. So I don't know what. I don't know what's going on here. This was their Instagram profile picture for a long time, wasn't it? Was it on BB Poltergeist?

[Jokerman]

That rings a bell.

[Evan]

I'm pretty sure that it was. I think now it's just, like, black, which is actually. No, it still is.

[Jokerman]

Yeah, that's still their picture.

[Evan]

It's still their picture.

[Jokerman]

Yeah. I remember first seeing it and thinking it wasn't that different of a cover, kind of from the last one, which also is, like, big whitish object, plus mouth with, like, wet mouth, I guess. But those are balloons, right?

[Evan]

I think they are. The COVID of Bottomless Pit seems to be a picture that has been taken in reality. And it is arranged in sort of an uncanny way, and you can't really get a sense for what's going on there. But it does, like I said, seem to be an image of physical reality. And this cover is not that. And.

[Jokerman]

No, this is augmented reality of some types.

[Evan]

That's right. It's just. It's. This was the first. You know, I've talked on previous episodes about how I came to Death Grips late. This was the first new Death Grips album that I was listening to at the time. Like, when it dropped. I'd gotten into Death Grips by this point, and so I was extremely stoked on it. And I just remember, and I think this came out, like, summer 2018. I'm pretty sure. In fact, I know for a fact, because I have it up on genius right now. June 22, 2018. I just moved to New York, and this is a very. I have a strong sense memory of just, like, up and down the subways, going all around my new hometown of New York City, listening to this album in this hot, stinking, wet summer. And it's. It's. It's a fond memory for me.

[Jokerman]

I can't imagine this being like, the first one that you're kind of like, this is the first one you have a memory of it coming out and listening to.

[Evan]

Well, yeah, like I said, I came to them, like, late. And so this wasn't the first record that I had listened to by them, but it was the first time there was a new Death Grips album that I was listening to when it came out.

[Jokerman]

Right. It's like, for me, that. That's you in Bob terms.

[Evan]

Tempest, right?

[Jokerman]

Tempest, yeah, yeah.

[Evan]

Which is Shadows in the Night for me. I'm always behind you in those ways.

[Jokerman]

The back cover. I love the back cover.

[Evan]

I don't Know that I have seen the back cover.

[Jokerman]

You haven't seen. Well, maybe you've seen the images on it. But the back cover is so good. It's just very dear to me whatever is going on here. This like, it's hard to describe exactly what type of like font. This like word art font, what that Remi, like what does that remind you of? Huh?

[Evan]

It looks a little bit. Yeah, this is very good. And I have never seen it.

[Jokerman]

It looks like it would be like on the side of like a stand that sells shawarma or something.

[Evan]

It's got a 90s flavor to it. Certainly maybe late 90s on the side

[Jokerman]

of like the box of like a dildo maybe.

[Evan]

Maybe that. I think it would be the font that like a Tilly's knockoff store in a second rate mall would use for their sign above the entrance there for a store called like Robbies or something like that. And it sold Jansports and Dickies and

[Jokerman]

like bootlegs or whatever.

[Evan]

Yeah, exact.

[Jokerman]

I remember as a kid going to like Super Cuts and they would have like toys on the wall, but it'd be those like bootleg action figure boxes where it'd be like Batman next to the Hulk and then Spider man next to Superman and all their colors would be all wrong. And like kind of like this was

[Evan]

at Supercuts, the haircut store.

[Jokerman]

Any like, like a franchise haircut place would have just like, you know, not very closely monitored by like the parent company and there's like somebody being like, let's make an extra buck. Like, you know, they would have like

[Evan]

gumball machines with selling these bootleg action figures at the Super Cuts.

[Jokerman]

Exactly. Or like, you know, the same places like that would have you know, maybe like bubble machines with like the aliens in it or like homies or like,

[Evan]

oh, we're training those things. Yeah, you put the quarter in and you get the little plastic ball, you pop and you got the little figurine in there.

[Jokerman]

Sure, it's a dying breed of thing. But like as a kid in the early 2000s, late 90s, I feel like there was a prevalence of like there was more bootleg bullshit that kids got that was just like it looked like this, like this looks like the. They're like we have Death Grips album and then it's like Dirth Grips.

[Evan]

Yes.