Clipping, the experimental hip-hop group made up of William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes, and former Hamilton star Daveed Diggs, performed on television for the first time together on The Late Late Show on Wednesday. Diggs rapped “A Better Place,” off the group’s upcoming album, Splendor & Misery, as Hutson and Snipes manned a panel of blinking lights and a set of tubular bells.
The performance was in keeping with the futuristic theme of the new concept album, which will follow “the sole survivor of a slave uprising on an interstellar cargo ship,” a motif that Clipping showcased in the music video for “Air ‘Em Out” in August. Sure enough, the lyrics to “A Better Place” also refer to their hero’s lonely voyage, and even include a nod to the album’s title: “He’s missing something pretty/ He’s missing where the air tastes gritty/ He’s missing the splendor and misery/ Of bodies, of cities, of being missed.”
Splendor & Misery drops Sept. 9.
