Artist
Stefan Burnett
Sacramento, United States
Stefan Burnett is a musician from Sacramento, United States.
Biography
Stefan Burnett, aka MC Ride, is the lead vocalist of American experimental hip-hop trio Death Grips. Prior to Death Grips, Burnett also rapped under the name "Mxlplx" in the duo Fyre with his brother DJ Swank Daddy. He is intensely private regarding information about his personal life, about which little is known.
The Arc of Stefan Burnett
The pivots — what forced Stefan Burnett to reinvent.
The Fyre Years
Operating alongside his brother Swank Daddy and Young G in Sacramento, Burnett rapped under the name Mxlplx throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. The output was strictly DIY boom-bap, heavy on weed smoke and classic West Coast hip-hop phrasing. You hear a relaxed, deliberate flow that gives zero hint of the vocal hostility he would unlock a decade later.
The Sacramento Blast
Teaming up with neighbor and Hella drummer Zach Hill alongside producer Andy Morin, Burnett took on the MC Ride persona to drop Exmilitary in 2011. Hill's chaotic acoustic drumming met Morin's blown-out Roland samplers, forcing Burnett to abandon steady cadences for manic, breathless shouting. The resulting tape blindsided underground rap and industrial circuits alike, establishing a hyper-visceral delivery that felt completely unhinged.
The Epic Stunt and Total Autonomy
Major label Epic signed Death Grips and quickly realized they had zero control over the machine. The group leaked NO LOVE DEEP WEB directly to the internet in late 2012 to spite the label, getting dropped almost immediately and retreating to complete creative independence. Burnett's lyrics leaned harder into psychological isolation and hostility, backed by stripping down the samples in favor of stark, synthesized brutality.
Live Band Hybrid
By the time The Powers That B and Bottomless Pit rolled around in the mid-2010s, the group integrated live guitars from Tera Melos collaborator Nick Reinhart and even guest appearances from Clementine Creevy. Burnett didn't soften his approach against the heavier live-instrument arrangements; he matched them with throat-shredding bark and tighter rhythmic bursts. The vocal tracks became locked-in percussive weapons, dead center in the wall of noise.
Influences
- Bad Brains — Burnett pulled directly from H.R.'s manic, breathless vocal cadences and hardcore punk velocity. You hear it across Exmilitary, where rap delivery is scrapped for pure, hyper-rhythmic physical aggression. It grounded his performance style more in late-70s hardcore than contemporary rap.
- Black Flag — Death Grips famously sampled Black Flag's 'Rise Above' on their debut mixtape track 'Klink'. Burnett channels Henry Rollins' confrontational, vein-popping delivery and themes of severe social paranoia. The sheer vocal stamina required for their live sets mirrors early SST-era hardcore endurance.
- Kool Keith — Keith's surreal, non-sequitur lyricism and outsider alter-egos with Ultramagnetic MCs and Dr. Octagon laid the groundwork for Burnett's abstract rhyming. You hear it in Burnett's rejection of linear hip-hop storytelling in favor of cryptic, occult-laced imagery. Keith proved an MC could be completely unhinged and command respect.
- Jimi Hendrix — Burnett and Death Grips built 'Castavista' around a direct sample of Hendrix's 'Castles Made of Sand'. The raw, overdriven feedback ethos of Hendrix's guitar work directly informed Burnett's appetite for heavily saturated, blown-out sonics. It anchors Burnett's lineage in loud, distorted psychedelic rock.
- Pink Floyd — The band sampled 'Interstellar Overdrive' on the track 'I Want It I Need It (Death Heated)'. Syd Barrett-era psych dissonance heavily influenced the dark, surrealist atmosphere Burnett constructs in his verses. It gave Burnett a template for using psychedelic disorientation as a weapon rather than an aesthetic.
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