album review: 'lp!' by JPEGMAFIA

So here’s an overly broad statement that is more true than some want to realize: the music industry is not for everyone.

And when I say that, I’m focusing specifically on the current state of label machinery that so many of us have been told is the natural state of the industry, but in reality seems a lot more like a house of cards filled with inefficiencies, graft, corruption, and barely legal nonsense. Yes, there are people who are trying to do good work at every stage of the process, and folks who are not aware of the nightmarish intricacies of the system and are just trying to get by, but the industrial process in which art is commodified and distributed is not an environment that’s going to work for everyone, especially if you’re more on the experimental side of the coin and already have a deep skepticism of any hierarchy or system.

So I’ll be honest: I’m frankly shocked that JPEGMAFIA lasted as long within the tangled nest of labels as he did, much less have any affiliation with a major like Republic - and I mean that from both sides here. It reminds me of when a larger label tried to sign Death Grips and while it would lead to a blip of broader publicity and maybe a few more connections within the network, it quickly became an untenable relationship. And for someone who wants to be more transgressive, weird, and thought-provoking in his content, sound, and artistic impulses - which for the record for me has led to powerful moments that didn’t always lead to a stronger whole, especially as he explored a more fragmented, collage-approach to composition - I could easily see JPEGMAFIA throwing all of the label nonsense aside and just staying purely indie. And indeed, this album comes in two forms: the one where he got the samples cleared and there’s a slightly more streamlined version that could play on streaming… and the one where it’s for free on Bandcamp and YouTube and is being advertised as the version that’s more aligned with his vision, which is the one I’m going to be reviewing. And… look, I saw all the critical acclaim, but I’ve never been as onboard with JPEGMAFIA’s breakthrough projects the last few years as so many have, with my favourite probably still being Black Ben Carson in all of its sprawling nightmare. So for his last hurrah on a major, what did he deliver?

Oh boy… this is the sort of project where I’m almost not even sure where to start - which is a little odd in context with the last few JPEGMAFIA albums, because this is easily his most accessible in about five years in terms of structured bars and content. But that’s the trick with LP! - you can engage with it as the blunt but fractured provocation that’s been his bread and butter, a giant middle finger and calling card to an industry with which he’s finally done, but dig even a little deeper and you find yourself in a dizzying funhouse hall of mirrors where the provocation cuts deeper and becomes more revealing, his targets become more varied and surprising, and you can glean a little more insight into the methods that are far less mad and chaotic than they might appear… provided of course you can get on his wavelength. And for the first time, this album really hit that core of resonance for me where even if his producer take is a dismissive ‘you think you know me’, I think I know enough to where this clicks… and is also fucking incredible, easily one of the best albums of the year and one that was a legit shocker all the way down.

Now I know the immediate assumption as to why I like this more is because the rapping feels more structured and focused and dare I even say accessible, a little less fractured and glossy where at least for me his ideas didn’t quite coalesce into more beyond the moment on the last two albums. In other words, you can argue this is more accessible, especially with the proliferation of gunplay and sports references, the occasional flow that leans on trap or more blunt force, blown out production, where the Denzel Curry feature on the remix of ‘BALD!’ makes all the sense in the world… but I’m not sure that’s it. For one, the album still has that sound collage approach to composition and flow, where tracks will blur together and blow apart, and there are definitely points where it sounds like the production fidelity shifts as wildly as he does. But what I’d argue is that this feels more thematically focused - still fractured and ragged and prone to wild diversions and provocation, but it aligns more closely with his targets, that being the music industry at large, the sort of online trolls that can’t handle what he brings to bear as his more hard leftist side shines through - which I can’t imagine his major label liked all that much - and specifically another indie rap duo that caught me completely off-guard, and even though it seems like they may have squashed the beef, I do want to examine it in some detail later on. This also means that like his last two albums, there are points where the momentum can flag or diversions that don’t quite click - the album can take a bit to rev up its intensity, the Young Dolph sampled interlude on ‘💯’ felt like a bit of a dead end, and once again it leaves the open question of how many of these songs will work outside of the whole project.

And the answer to that is, ‘a hell of a lot more’, because the individual compositions seem to hit way more effectively on this project in both production and content. In the former category, the reason why the album seems to take a bit to get going is because the synths JPEGMAFIA uses are so bright, fluttery and clear against the shuddering rattle of percussion that you might think he’s still playing to the more ethereal, hyperpop-adjacent, ‘internet-driven’ side of the last two albums, which worked well on the cacophonous ‘DIRTY!’ but felt a little underpowered on the bleeping ‘NEMO!’. But then ‘END CREDITS!’ goes for a wrestling sample and a borderline rap rock instrumental, and on the offline version of the album it then flips into an extended Anita Baker and The Winans sample that reflects a deeper, borderline oldschool hip-hop influence on some of JPEGMAFIA’s sounds and flows, which doesn’t just expand into the shuddering sample flips on the songs that follow or the haunted Memphis knock of ‘ARE U HAPPY?’ with the Gangsta Boo sample, or the reggae inspired flip on ‘THE GHOST OF RANKING DREAD!’, but also how thoroughly old-school ‘OG!’ was and it was goddamn charming as hell! But then there are instrumentals that feel like JPEGMAFIA is stepping into utterly unfamiliar territory: the lo-fi rumbling horns, coursing bass, and dank, crushing groove of ‘REBOUND!’, the fractured chime-like twinkles off the rougher percussion and mixing on ‘DIKEMBE!’, the roiling bass shudder with the clanking percussion and roiling synths around ‘TIRED, NERVOUS & BROKE!’, what sounds like vaporwave synths slathered over the autotuned crooning ‘🔥 (KISSY, FACE EMOJI!)’ and the Patricia Taxxon-esque synth work on ‘DAM! DAM DAM!’, the encrusted grit, blubbery bass and metallic Transformers sound effects on ‘UNTITLED’, and most starkly, what sounds like a drill sergeant roaring over the jittery acoustics and quaking bass on ‘NICE!’ that breaks into what sounds like a crushing, chain gang wallop to ‘BMT!’. This is where I feel like I should say something about the mixing and mastering, which is all over the place in terms of vocal placement and fidelity, and whether or not certain elements will swamp out the mix…. and I found myself a little surprised it doesn’t bother me more. I’m not going to say I didn’t notice it - there were more than a few points where I found myself wondering how much more effective certain songs would be if the bass didn’t swamp everything or the vocals were better layered - but the greater sense of thematic purpose, just how much more developed the grooves, hooks, and melodies felt, and how every odd production choice felt so intentional left me thinking that this is more idiosyncratic than incompetent, with enough refinement that if your ears are attuned to the style, you’ll appreciate what he’s doing.

And that’s relevant when you look at the content as well, where JPEGMAFIA might embrace the occasional trap flow and mash his wordplay full of quotable punchlines, but there’s a deliberation that adds texture to even the choppier moments. What you notice very quickly is that JPEGMAFIA knows exactly how to target his opponents, either in the industry or behind the keyboard, and might as well serve as a textbook on how to bend projections of masculinity and bravado into weapons, especially as everyone can catch a stray. I love how in stark contrast to so many other rappers using Ike and Tina in questionable throwaway bars he takes her side in the clapback on ‘END CREDITS!’, or how on ‘HAZARD DUTY PAY!’ he focuses on Black capitalist rappers who put the business above the ‘Black’, especially when so few of them have lived the life they profess and will frame it all as a gimmick or trend. JPEGMAFIA goes right past all of that, not just in how he can recognize those biting his style and sound, but also how he’ll once again embrace sexually charged imagery that will actually make many of his targets legit uncomfortable - and that’s a positive, not just in how he’ll croon an interpolation of Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ on ‘THOT’S PRAYER’ where there’s a deeper sense of empathy in how he interweaves the soulful sampling - not the first nor last time he does so on this album - but also on cuts like ‘🔥 (KISSY, FACE EMOJI!)’ where some might consider some lines too graphic for comfort, especially given where and how he frames himself. My personal favourite comes on ‘ARE U HAPPY?’ which might be the most deft takedown of keyboard warrior shitposters I’ve heard since SHREDDERS’ ‘Vanilla ISIS’, with the amazing line ‘All my hate comes from weak-ass men / with their weak-ass hoes and their woke-ass friends’, and it drills into just how much JPEGMAFIA seems to despise how performative it all feels for them. He enjoys the provocation, sure, but his interests feel lived-in and eclectic and uncool in a way that feels authentic and raw, where he’ll split ‘TIRED, NERVOUS & BROKE!’ midway through to have an intimate behind-the-scenes chat with Kimbra and it somehow completely works, and that contributes to the exultant feel of so much of this album, where he can be a howling bruiser, a edgelord horndog, and a genuine online weirdo with the occasional tender moment that feels earned with less of the cavalier inconsistency that used to annoy me.

And that leads to the beef that may have already been squashed but is worth exploring and dissecting considering just how much of it shows up on this album and illuminates some of themes: JPEGMAFIA… versus Armand Hammer. Yeah, the duo of billy woods and Elucid who also put out one of the best hip-hop albums of 2021 in Haram and where I wasn’t previously aware of tension, which apparently came up over some production squabbles - probably should have been aware because Elucid dissed JPEGMAFIA on Shrines last year, but it’s not uncommon for references to go missed with that duo. But even beyond the back and forth, what I found so interesting was the ideological friction between these camps, because it’s real - and I want to start with how Elucid called out JPEGMAFIA for performative rebel rhetoric and taking a few potshots at his veteran discharge and how a lot of the sex references can come across as silly and base. Well, this entire album is JPEGMAFIA calling that bluff, not just in the explosive exodus from the music industry and living up to his content, but also in highlighting his time in military placed him way closer to street level reality than Armand Hammer’s more academically-minded poetry ever has. More to the point it seems like JPEGMAFIA was one of the few who actually heard and understood Haram from this year, where he specifically targets not just the frequently confusing juxtaposition of liberation ideals with a capitalist framework, but also how it can feel muted and less potent in actually challenging those power structures in which they’re now seeing benefit. Now you can tell Elucid is catching most of the flack here - there’s a few lines at billy woods but they’re more strays, reminding me of why the duo’s chemistry can be a bit off at points, given woods tends to showcase more rough, feral edges even through the layered poetry - but thematically this stakes the dividing line between those who’ll critique but compromise within the system and those who’ll flagrantly reject it, for better and worse. It honestly got me thinking that JPEGMAFIA and Noname could probably make some fantastic material together in their independent, off-kilter, hard leftist lanes of bars upon bars and militant horniness - again, that’s a compliment - but I’m also aware that the sheer edgelord rapper side of this album doesn’t always stick with me as strongly or feel as balanced against the introspection I really liked on his last two albums, and it might just be the part of the album that ages the worst.

But again, this is nitpicking on stuff that’s prevalent on every JPEGMAFIA record, and this is absolutely the one that showcases the most explosive, colourful, and focused refinement of his sound to date. And yet for as weird as this thing gets, I’d also argue it’s his most accessible in terms of tune and structured bars and sheer unbridled bangers - yeah, it probably works at its best as a whole, but in terms of individuals compositions this has some of his absolute best. And even then I’d probably still call this transitional - it’s the mother of all ‘I quit’ text messages at his label and in the industry around him, but it’s also one that highlights without those unnecessary constraints everything else he could do with the technician discipline to pull it off. He’s still finding more ways to evolve - and I think I’m actually onboard for the ride this time. 9/10, one of the best albums of 2021, and even though odds are it will not be everyone, I still absolutely recommend you check it out.