So, hey, JPEGMafia is coming out with a new album… a new solo album aka “not Scaring the Hoes, pt.2″ (and no, I’m not even sure if that’s still a thing now).
I know I sound like I’m not excited for a JPEGMafia project even though I think he’s one of the more interesting rappers/producers in the game now, but you’ve also heard of his past beefs with rappers I either like or favor more, whether it’s Armand Hammer (they made up eventually), Freddie Gibbs (I doubt it) and more recently, Earl Sweatshirt. Yeah it’s basically him saying that he’s the master of this experimental rap game and that no one can do what he does… even though there have been countless others doing this (Death Grips, anyone?).
But yeah, he has a new album out titled… Experimental Rap.
I have to be honest: while this sounds experimental, there’s nothing mind-blowing that we haven’t heard from him before. Maybe because of him talking the talk, he’s trying to prove it… although he has various times.
So, how is Experimental Rap?
Well, I can safely say that while I like the album, nothing about it surprises me as innovative or mind-blowing. It just sounds like the same shit I’ve heard from his previous albums — either it’s All My Heroes are Cornballs or LP or even his previous project I Lay Down My Life For You. I’ll get some of the singles out of the way — my favorite of them was “War Over Land,” and it had some aspects I dug from the instrumentation/production, the flow Peggy delivers on here, and the outro is amazing. This one still remains one of my favorite tracks on the album.
We still get the usual bizarre samples and instrumentation in his songs like the lead single “babygirl” where he talks shit to his opponents and critics, with the production having a looping sample, dynamic 808s and an electric guitar outro — which is very experimental but it’s not taboo (hip-hop often uses guitar in their songs). “Burning Hammer” is a little bit better with more of a driving force behind it and the outro part… does once again have something unique to it with driving drums (mostly rock oriented), which again we’ve seen in JPEG’s production a few times. “$(Money)” is another eccentric banger that does… well, what I’ve said before, but the next track “Pop this Heat” is interesting mainly because of the sample… or more accurately the sample that’s been sampled before. That sample comes from Brenda Russell’s “A Little Bit of Love”… or should I say Big Pun and Joe’s “Still Not A Player”… or better yet, Ariana Grande’s “The Way” featuring Mac Miller.
Yeah, this song is a sample inception (BRAAAM!).
I’ve been hearing about Peggy’s flow and how he doesn’t really switch up as much and well, I can see what people are talking about. The flow he’s been doing isn’t bad; at least it’s not monotonous. He still sounds like he has some bite within him.
For example, “The Ghost of Emmett Till” came in hard as hell and aggressive with these lyrics in particular:
Niggas don’t be ballin’, ya numbers looking like Anthony Bennett
Fuck Carolyn Bryant, my niggas dying, it’s R.I.P. Emmett
She did the crime but ain’t do the time, she in Hell with no helmet
I’m in her mouth, got her biting down on the crown like a dentist
You in the field but you playing ’round, you ain’t ready to scrimmage
I feel likе Popeye exposing you niggas’ bitchеs to spinach
I heard that bitch got that Nancy Reagan, the head is the illest
I’m breaking bread
with the killers, fighting my demons on
Upon listening to this, I realized what JPEG is trying to do with this album, or at least what I think he’s trying to accomplish with this. He wants to be the next Kanye… or at least be a producer that’s reminiscent of him.
Now, Kanye West was one of the most influential producers/rappers in the early 2000s and 2010s, and many have a bit of his influence in his production like JPEG… but notice that I said was. We know who he is now and why most people refuse to associate with him.
Oh. and the next track is “Since I Met Ye” and well, it began with…
Since I met Ye, I’m dead to you niggas, that’s why I wear jet black (Go)
Yeah, we remember the backlash Peggy faced working with Ye on Vultures 1 and 2 and given Peggy’s own political views, his fans were right to be upset with this. But on the other hand, a bunch of other known producers worked on there but didn’t catch much flak, whether because they’re maybe unknown or some just don’t care.
Speaking of don’t care… wow, “Lights” is basically “All of the Lights” but more tweaked-up in its instrumentation… yeah, that’s all I got for this song. It’s just a tweaked-up cover and yeah, him basically taking influence from him makes this fine (at least, it was around early 2010s and not yet gone mental).
There’s also another issue with the album: the structure and the runtime. This album has over 25 tracks, and the runtime is around 52 minutes, which equals about 2 minutes per track, with the longest songs being 3 minutes and the shortest cuts being under a minute and some seconds. Now, do some of these songs feel fragmented and short? It’s 50/50. Like “GYBB” does sound stellar, and while it was 2 minutes, I didn’t really feel like I wanted more. I didn’t exactly hate the song but I was like, “Oh, OK. That’s over. On to the next track.”
“TSAR BOMBA” is another track that does have a banging sound and Peggy’s flow… it’s the same but hey, don’t fix what’s not broken, and all within a runtime of… 1 minute and 46 seconds. Again, it’s good but it’s not exactly different than what I usually hear from him.
“Mask On” has some funny bars on them (Speakin‘ on niggas like they was handlers / Your bitch off the white, sniffin’ that Chelsea Handler) and once again, some wild experimental production that does sound great and hey, this time it’s a 2 minute song so we’re good on that.
“Bridges on Fire” has that soulful feel to it with his fast flow, and it even has Buzzy Lee (aka Steven Spielberg’s daughter) on the vocals. Yes, she’s the lone feature on this album, which is mostly a plus as at least it isn’t surrounded by a bunch of anonymous features and all.
I will say that the last stretch of songs on the album were pretty excellent in their own right: “No Strippers in Heaven”, “Chat” and “The 1st Amendment”.
“Chat” has some good choice of bars of there, including:
So they can put that bitch in the ground
They killing our kids with them pop guns
I’m riding ’round town with a shotgun
Act cool, we gon’ let ’em feel hot ones
Never switch sides like OVO Popcaan
Plant my feet and get ready to bop, she feel like a Kennedy, I’m hitting her top
And then there’s “The 1st Amendment” — OK, it’s mostly references towards Charlie Kirk and well, the way he transitioned from this Earth aka a lot of neck jokes and lines and there’s some bars on a rapper named Lil’ Reese that got shot in the neck but he survived. However, the final track on the album is an instrumental titled “You will always lose money chasing women, but you will never lose women chasing money”. JPEG explains on Genius that the title comes from a Katt Williams stand-up bit and that his fanbase probably don’t know about it because they have no black people in their lives. I mean, he’s not wrong.
I’ll say this: this was a step down from his last two albums. I’ll argue that I Lay Down My Life For You had better moments than this. I get that JPEG always wants to go outside the box with everything he does but he already did everything outside of the box. He might’ve boxed himself in with some of the choices he made with this. However, it’s not awful, I don’t hate it and at least I wasn’t bored with some of it. Some of the tracks hit and it does have that signature Peggy style with using samples of rock music, choir and some other obscure samples I have no clue about but it’s not much of a mystery since WE know you do this a lot. As much as I was meh on the Earl Sweatshirt/MIKE album, at least they switch up a bit.
While it may be a bit of a step down from prior works, I find it awful nor the worst of the year. Yeah, some of the things like production, his flow and choices of sampling can be a bit stale but there’s still some bite to it and even if I was bored by some of it, I rather be bored with something than outright hating it and not enjoying it. In short, not the best thing JPEG has made but there’s still some bright spots of this that I enjoyed.
FINAL VERDICT: STREAM IT FIRST. I’ll say it’s worth a listen but I would buy it, it’ll probably be on digital download.
EXPERIMENTAL RAP is on AWAL and is available to buy on digital download on Bandcamp and on streaming services.