Jpegmafia albums

2023 (w/ danny brown)

Scaring the Hoes- 86%

Scaring em! Scaring everybody and blasting them with noise. Seemingly taking some lessons from Death Grips, this new album from Jpeg and Danny B has them trading off lines back n forth and they make a formidable team. Title track “Scaring the Hoes” paints the thoughtless dregs of society as said ‘hoes’, people that don’t like dangerous challenging music or the ones who stay safe and don’t dare to be weird enough. Danny Brown is more of a sense of humor of course on "Fentyal Tester" which calls back his classic album XXX (2011) or the insightful "Burfict", which sounds like classic Outkast updated to the technology of the 2020s. The hateful satire of “Jackl Harlow Combo Meal” is just what society needs right now- if you get from I’m coming from, and I highly approve.

There is a clarity that pierces the chaos though, as Jpeg is such a professional and militant about what he says in "Kingdom Hearts" while songs like “Steppa Pig” and “God Loves You” really stick in your head. Everything is up for parody and everything in the history of music deserves to be lampooned; the approach of this kind of noisy, angry, hilarious hip hop has very few precedents beyond Danny and Jpeg themselves. Hopefully they will join forces again because the results are as good as anything either one has produced.

Best Songs: Fentanyl Tester, Scaring the Hoes, Garbage Pail Kids, Kingdom Hearts Key

2024

I Lay Down My Life for You - 94%

Jpegmafia is definitely the sonic terrorist of our time. He is cataloged as a hip hop artist, and the art of sampling is definitely on display with a lot of rapping inside, but there are also so much punk rock fervor and electronic manipulation that it kind of defies an easy genre. Looking at a song like "New Black History" feat/ Vince Staples, and I just wonder what goes on in that mind of Jpeg, as it really seems to come from something that finds pleasure in being disjointed and confusing. "Don’t Rely on Other Men" is one of his best productions yet, fusing heavy bass, metallic guitars, and manic rapping with some kind of magical operatic ending that has to be heard. To listen to Jepg's records are the modern day equivalent of Frank Zappa' college arrangements form the late 1960’s- it seriously is on par with that and he’s only getting better with time. That’s a nice summation, read on for more –

"Vulgar Display of Power" is like a Henry Rollins mixed by The Bomb Squad. "Sin Meido" has the nostalgia of the 1990's song like "Tootsie Roll" but turns it on its head, like Danny Brown (his partner in crime form last year’s Scaring the Hoes (2023)) would. “It's Dark and Hell is Hot" is a reference to DMX by name, but not really in form, its way to excited and lightweight, constantly changing forms. "I'll be Right there" is unpredictable and more about the noises than the words said for sure, mixing in the gospel choir. “Jihad Joe” and “JPEG!” feat/ Denzel Curry do not let up for a second, showing off Hendrick’s disturbed viewpoint; the latter is very special, building up a repeating horn section line on a loop that should not work at all but somehow it does. It is music like this, nasty and vulgar but also endlessly inventive, that pushes us into the future. We have to remember what we are like at the base, to see how far we can go into outer-space.

One of the more interesting things about I Lay Down My Life For You, and what separates the album from his other records, is the last couple of songs that are more talking then rapping (“Loop”), more soulful than he ever has been before. “Either on or off Drugs” is like a confessional, “Don’t Put Anything on the Bbile” feat/ Buzzy Lee with psychedelic female vocals that propel it along. “I Recovered From This” – from what exactly? The tragedy of life that made him react to life the way he does. Hendricks’s life certainly contained some trauma, and without it would we have got this music- he is rebelling against everyone, everybody…..any body that looks at him. It almost sounds like the work of another artist, but tis the calm to the storm of torrential rapping that came before and a magical way to end things. Jpegmafia’s masterpiece so far? Perhaps. There is so much going on in all of his records that we just never know what will come next, but I can’t wait.

Best Songs: Don’t Rely on Other Men, Exmilitary, New Black History, Jpegultra