The group consists of producers Zach Hill (drums), Andy Morin (keyboard), and vocalist Stefan Burnett, also known as MC Ride.

The group released the mixtape Exmilitary in April 2011 and their debut studio album, The Money Store, a year later; both received critical praise.

[3] Shortly after signing to Epic Records in 2012, the group leaked their second album, No Love Deep Web, for free download in breach of their contract and were dropped from the label.

[15][16] Throughout the spring and early summer in 2011, they played small shows while Exmilitary was spreading steadily throughout the Internet and receiving favorable reviews from music critics.

[12] Prior to that, an international tour was scheduled to support The Money Store, but was immediately cancelled in order to complete No Love Deep Web.

[29][30][31] Death Grips was cut from their recording contract as a result,[32] and would launch their new label Third Worlds in the following year from "a unique relationship with Harvest/Capitol".

[34] A non-album track titled "True Vulture Bare" was issued in October 2012 and was accompanied with an animated video by Galen Pehrson.

[43][44] The group however, never planned to actually appear at Lollapalooza; they later stated that the drum kit, suicide note, and pre-recorded music "was the show".

[49] In June, Death Grips announced a double album titled The Powers That B, along with a download of the first disc, subtitled Niggas on the Moon.

[53] Death Grips were scheduled as a supporting act to tour with Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden in July but the group announced an abrupt disbandment, thus cancelling their appearances.

The song titles, each beginning with the word "Runway" followed by a letter of the alphabet, spelled out the phrase "JENNY DEATH WHEN" in reference to the then-unreleased second disc of The Powers That B.

It features footage from 2013 of American actress Karen Black reciting lines from a film script Hill wrote months before her death.

[58] In March, the group published a 32-minute video to their YouTube page titled Interview 2016, which shares its name with their second EP; the video shows the group being interviewed by Matthew Hoffman of Tuesdays With Matthew, an online volunteer project that aims to combat loneliness in elderly people by recruiting them to act in recreations of famous movie scenes.

[59] However, all of the interview's audio is replaced by the album's songs, while the EP's cover art consists solely of a picture of Hoffman looking into the camera.

[62][63][64] In March 2018, Death Grips posted images on social media outlining that they were "working on the new album" titled Year of the Snitch with Australian noise artist Lucas Abela, New Zealand film director Andrew Adamson, and English musician Justin Chancellor (best known as the bassist for Tool).

[65][66][67] In April, Death Grips uploaded a video to their YouTube channel writing the track listing for the new album with text messages.

[75] On June 21, 2019, Death Grips released a 30-minute mix titled Gmail and the Restraining Orders as part of Warp Records' 30th anniversary celebrations.

On January 29, 2021, Gmail and the Restraining Orders and "More Than the Fairy", a 2016 non-album single featuring Les Claypool, were released on streaming services.

[79] In November 2022, Death Grips were announced as participants in the Sick New World, Outbreak Fest and Primavera Sound music festivals scheduled for summer 2023.

[83] Andy Morin later went on a hiatus from Death Grips in July, with past collaborator Nick Reinhart replacing him for the remainder of the tour.

[87] On May 4, 2023, Death Grips started a new nationwide tour at Portland's Revolution Hall, featuring a complete version of the track that had been previously teased in the aforementioned moth clip.

[88] On October 13, 2023, the band walked off stage early in the middle of a performance in Fayetteville, Arkansas after being hit with glowsticks thrown by fans several times.

[91] Death Grips' music combined a variety of styles including hip hop, punk rock,[92] electronic,[93] noise,[94][12] and industrial.

They are also notable for engaging in extended periods of live musical improvisation interwoven into their set as bridges between songs, typically performed on the fly by Morin and Hill.

Ride has been known to adopt many different vocal styles on record and during live performances, such as shouting, screaming, spoken word-style talking, and whispering.