Review: JPEGMAFIA – LP!

Experimental rapper, songwriter, and producer JPEGMAFIA releases his fourth studio album, coming off his most successful record yet. In All My Heroes Are Cornballs, he showed his musical prowess to create such weird and unique production, and listeners loved it. The signature Peggy aesthetic continues on this record in a more developed, mature way as his last album had moments that lost me because of its messy organization and cohesion. On LP!, he starts off hard with a great introduction and does not stop, extracting from the same great vocal inflections, unexpected production choices, and weird lyricism (in the best way possible). TRUST! begins with his chilling producer tag in silence, then immediately plunging the listener straight into a minimalistic, playful synthesizer-based atmosphere and confronts the listener with silly lyrics about trust issues. Here is the track-by-track analysis:

DIRTY! – Again, this track similarly plunges the listener into an even more sparkly yet dark

instrumental that has a slight interlude switch-up. His verses are perfectly comedic yet substantive and he stays with his conventional flow here.

*NEMO! – The extraordinarily hard-hitting trap banger on the album utilizes a completely unexpected minimal beat. I’ve never had such instinct to head bop so hard to such a skeletal instrumental but features like the loud gun noise effects somehow culminate into a great cut.

END CREDITS! – This song sounds weirdly motivational with either a satirical or serious use of Arn Anderson (I can’t tell) in the intro that transitions into an immersive guitar instrumental. Peggy spits about his ambitious efforts in the rap scene with the great line “And I only rap out of spite / Loss is the theme of my life.”

HAZARD DUTY PAY! – One of the “hidden” tracks on the album (a few tracks are only available on the OFFLINE version), Peggy hops on an Anita Baker sample-sounding beat here. The entire cut is one verse, a true showcase of his rap ability on one track.

*GOD DON’T LIKE UGLY! – Another “hidden” track presents itself as a single-verse showcase. Here the lyrics are more substantive, seeing Peggy contribute commentary on lookism as a metaphorical means for the shallow music industry. “Look, I get it, y’all need a image, y’all / don’t care ‘bout talent.”

WHAT KIND OF RAPPIN’ IS THIS? – Back to the “online” version, this cut also has a hidden intro in the offline version that is mostly silent and eerie. The track has a much more layered instrumental than the preceding ones, including cascading bell-like sounds and some horns.

THOT’S PRAYER! – Peggy croons and raps over this interesting song with a gospel in the background while utilizing Britney Spears lyrics. It is a little short, though.

ARE U HAPPY? – This song begins with a Galaxy 2 Galaxy sample, transitioning into an analog-sounding keyboard-themed production. It feels like an introspective track about his life satisfaction (respect the MF DOOM bar).

*REBOUND! – Being one of the longer tracks, Peggy and DATPIFFMAFIA collaborate on this trap banger with this nice horn riff-dominated beat. Hands down one of the best JPEGMAFIA performances in technical skill that includes a very extended outro/interlude on the offline version that’s titled “100.”

OG! – With Just-Ice and DMX vocals leading and anchoring this cut, it seems like a short ode to the Original Gangstas. Peggy’s rap verse ends with his mentioning that this will be his last album under a record label, looking forward to the artistic freedom of being an independent artist soon.

*DIKEMBE! – Here is one of the most interesting productions on the album as it incorporates a Stan Getz sample, latin-esque guitars, while being about Dikembe Mutombo? Strange conceptual undertones that make for a great listening experience. He also confesses that he’s a communist at the beginning, which I didn’t know yet. It is also only on the offline version.

*TIRED, NERVOUS & BROKE! (SICK, NERVOUS AND BROKE!) – Interesting how the two versions swap the first adjectives of the titles “tired” and “sick.” It seems like a commentary on both his own struggles and the postmodern problems in America. There is an interesting segment at the end where he’s working with Kimbra for music where they first talk about possible restrictions of his album (or maybe somebody else’s).

*FIRE EMOJI (KISSY, FACE EMOJI) – The faster-paced lo-fi track reminds me more of Peggy’s essential aesthetic with his signature singing. Still, he surprises me with this blaring, weirdly industrial percussion that sounds like an electronic banging pan that propels the beat forward. It interpolates between that banging with these spherical sound effects.

NICE! – An interesting interlude of sorts that is basically just a chant with people in the background following in a cultish fashion. The instruments used are pretty interesting.

*BMT! – A blaringly lo-fi instrumental that edges this song on par with other noise rap. It utilizes background chants similar to the ones from the previous track.

THE GHOST OF RANKING DREAD! – Tkay Maidza introduces this song with some singing as Peggy comes in with a chill rap over a chill beat. I appreciate the reference to Armand Hammer and Nation of Islam.

DAM! DAM! DAM! – More fitting on the offline version, its placement is much earlier in the online version for some reason. There’s a long, calm introduction made with synthesizers that transitions into two objectively well-crafted verses that work with the previous song to create this slow, serene ending to the album.

Untitled – Peggy concludes the album phenomenally with the lyrical theme of calling people out when he feels like it, usually in a really justified manner. From Candace Owens to Joe Biden, his comedic nature comes off as a critique of these figures.

JPEGMAFIA’s LP! presents itself already as one of the best records, and THE best rap album, so far this year. Peggy is always one of the most reliable current artists for consistently unique and interesting music. I predict this album to be iconic as its esoteric aesthetic made up of a staple minimalistic production style, justifiably taunting lyrics of criticism, and an interesting dichotomy between the two versions of the album makes it stand out in his discography. The “offline” album available on YouTube organizes the tracks more coherently, including multiple additional “hidden” tracks that are even better than the “online” songs. This both builds on Peggy’s niche position in music and his displeasure in the constraints of a record label. None of the songs are miss and many of them keep Peggy on the forefront of creative, cutting-edge production and composition, continuously cementing him legitimately worthy of the “experimental rap” label. I am enthusiastic to see what he will do without the confines of a record label in the near future.

Score: 9.1

Favorite Tracks: NEMO!, GOD DON’T LIKE UGLY!, REBOUND!, DIKEMBE!, [TIRED, NERVOUS & BROKE!], [KISSY, FACE EMOJI], and BMT!

Least Favorites: N/A