A strange story involving a Death Grips t-shirt

2025-07-18

I just randomly remembered an extremely strange thing that happened to me once that I still kind of can't believe wasn't a dream. This would have been back in maybe around 2017-2018. I was on the train, it would have been the overground somewhere near Dalston. I don't remember why I was there. Anyway, I'm on the train, and as sometimes happens a (presumably) homeless guy is walking through the carriages asking for change. As he gets closer to me, I notice he's wearing a Death Grips shirt. Now this time period was like, people who were into music knew death grips, but it was just on the edge of breaking through into the wider public. Like they were no longer a super obscure band, but they were also kind of a meme like "weird shit /mu/ users are into". So it would be somewhat surprising to see anyone wearing a death grips tshirt. On top of that, this particular shirt, well let me look around and see if I can find an image of it.

An image of the shirt I found on reddit

This was the shirt. Now this is actually one of the rarest pieces of death grips merch, because it was only sold during their first ever European tour in 2013. Perhaps this was just my prejudice at the time, but I associated Death Grips fans with very online middle class white kids, so this was very unexpected to me. This also happened to take place during the peak of my personal Death Grips fandom. When he arrived at my seat, I gave him some change, and I told him,

"Nice shirt".

Then this was the strange event that happened next. He immediately responded:

"Thanks, do you want it?"

Now, many thoughts went through my head. For a second I thought maybe I had misheard him, but then replaying the sentence in my mind I realised there was nothing else he could possibly have said. Then I had to run through my options. On the one hand, I actually did want that shirt. I mean, I didn't know how rare it was until I looked it up later, but I definitely knew I hadn't seen it before, so it must have been somewhat rare. But more importantly, I didn't actually own any merch of what was at that time my favourite band, so yes I very much did want that shirt. However, did I actually want to take a shirt from a homeless guy, who presumably needed it much more than me? That feels kind of wrong, no? But on the other hand, all I did was compliment the shirt, I didn't in any way indicate that I wanted it, he was the one who offered it to me. Maybe he's expecting me to pay him for it? There are some cultures where complimenting someone's possession is considered a polite way to ask if you can have it, but this guy definitely looked white and spoke in a british accent, so it seems unlikely that this was a cultural difference. Do I accept his offer, or not?

None of this mattered though, because before I could even mumble out a real response, he had already started taking it off! Another thing to consider is during this time I also had quite severe social anxiety. I mean, I still do to some extent, but I've developed coping mechanisms now which I just didn't have back then, so I really didn't have the tools available to turn him down once he had actively begun the process of removing his shirt and handing it to me. He did have another shirt on underneath, it wasn't like he was left topless.

So he handed me the Death Grips shirt and I mumbled something like "oh thank you you didn't have to-" but he was already walking away. Of course, everyone else in the train carriage was staring at me after this interaction, presumably those further away couldn't hear our brief conversation, and it just looked like I had taken clothes from a homeless guy??

I sat there trying to process this event. I guess he was just an extremely generous guy. He didn't seem to me to be intoxicated in any way. Perhaps he had gone to see death grips back in 2013 when they played in London, perhaps he had obtained that shirt from someone else who had. I'll never know. I think if this were me nowadays, I would have tried harder to actually strike up a conversation with him and find the answers to these questions.

Anyway I put the shirt in my bag, and excitedly texted my friend who was also a big death grips fan, trying to explain what had just happened. Unfortunately, when I got home and tried the shirt on, it turned out to be too small for me, so I ended up giving it to that friend. Anyway, that's it, this was just a strange event that happened to me once, and I sometimes randomly remember it and I try to figure out, did I do something bad? Like, should I have turned him down more aggressively? It just feels wrong to take clothes from someone who likely has less than me. I mean I gave him some change but it definitely did not cover the value of the shirt. Did my tone of voice when I complimented his shirt somehow indicate that I wanted to take it? I just can't really wrap my head around what happened there. Well, whatever is the case, shouts out to that guy, I still remember your generosity, and I hope I didn't do anything wrong.