I’d like to preface this by saying I know next to nothing about music. I just like JPEGMAFIA.
Oh, you don’t know who JPEGMAFIA is? Then why’d you click on this article? You’re weird.
Earlier this May, JPEGMAFIA—who I’m just gonna call Peggy from now on—released his sixth studio album titled “Experimental Rap.” Now I don’t know what a “studio album” means (don’t they record all albums in studios?) but I figured it’s an important distinction to make for all the real musicheads out there or whatever all you music nerds go by these days. A term I do know of is “experimental,” and I’m not really sure that adjective fits this album.
That’s not to say Peggy doesn’t experiment, but this isn’t particularly groundbreaking, especially given his prior work. This is not something as inventive as 2023's “Scaring the Hoes.”
The album feels less like experimental music but instead some ideas Peggy was cooking up in the lab. It’s like he’s saying, “here’s some things I came up with but didn’t bother to edit or polish.” It’s messy, all over the place, but definitely worth a listen.
The single, “babygirl”, is fine. Not bad, just fine. For about two thirds of the runtime, there’s this repetitive vocal sample of “whatcha gonna do?” and then in the last third, he introduces this electric guitar sequence that lasts about ten seconds. Sort of a sign of things to come.
Burning Hammer is a great JPEGMAFIA record. It’s got good drums, a nice flow, and transitions to both acoustic and electric guitars. And the beat has this ascending rhythm I really liked even though I’m having a hard time describing it. Plenty to like here if you’re already a fan of Peggy’s work.
Then we get to “Money.” I think this is what maybe we’re supposed to think is “experimental” about this album. It’s like someone poured McDonald’s Sprite into your ear. Or like a fax machine having a seizure.
Now, I like metal, electropunk, industrial hip hop, all that. I love Death Grips. But sometimes this album sounded more like dubstep. I hate dubstep.
“Pop This Heat” has this nice piano beat, accompanied by electric guitar. But then “Meet the Dealers” takes us back to dubstep. Halfway through this one, Peggy has another ascending tech beat I really liked, but it lasts ten seconds. And then it’s back to scraping metal.
The track titled “head” is hilarious. I feel like this is what it would sound like if the Musk neurochip malfunctioned and fried your brain for sixty seconds.
The volume of ideas Peggy makes on this album is impressive. Almost every song has an instrumental change, sometimes up to five or six. The quality is usually lacking, but when the ideas hit they hit.
“Degenerates Prayer” has this annoying vocal sample that talks over Peggy’s actual rapping. Also this sounds like dubstep to me, so minus points there.
Speaking of rapping, “The Ghost of Emmett Till” has the best flow of the tracks thus far. Maybe the menacing guitar was tricking me into thinking this is better than it is, but I like how Peggy puts his lyricism front and center on this track.
The problem with his lyricism, for me, is twofold. Many of the tracks I’ve just reviewed so far—and some later on—have a similar flow. The instrumentals are distinct, but some seem the exact same to me. It’s fast paced, which I like, but his speed comes at the cost of strength.
The second problem, which permeates throughout this album and his other recent ones, is epitomized in “Since I Met Ye.” Peggy wants to fight with everyone. Racists, conservatives, liberals, wokeness, white people, black people, and he’s constantly rapping about criticism he saw on Twitter. Part of me thinks, why the hell does this guy care what people say on Twitter? The other part of me recognizes how Peggy is, to my eyes, a punk artist. The entire idea of “punk” is to flip the bird to everyone and everything. I respect it, but I don’t think any sane person thinks you’re cool just because you wear black and hang out with Ye these days.
I am a fan of his music but I don’t want to meet this dude. Then again, I don’t think this dude wants to meet me either. He seems dead set on making sure people don’t like him.
“Yen” is a mix of heavenly orchestra and metal scraping and vocal samples. It’s the irony I like, but it doesn’t fuse well here. Maybe because the scraping just doesn’t sound good.
“GYBB” starts off with a baffling intro. Peggy states, “You [fellas] is in the streets, not me”, and then “don’t come to me with no goofy, ghetto shit.” He doesn’t rap this part at all, he just says it. With a visceral hatred. At this point I was thinking, is he racist? “I’m racist,” says Peggy, a half-second later.
A lot of Peggy’s previous work has been fighting back against racism, so this feels a little iffy. How are we supposed to get on board when he’s combating racism after saying this? He’s trying to fight everyone, so when on “Chat” he protests against police brutality against the black community, it loses some punch.
“New Era” is more of what I wanted to hear from Peggy. It’s got this slow beat and hazy background vocals. Later on, there’s these powerful synths I really liked. It’s the same type of thing on “Valentine’s Day Freestyle ‘26”, where there’s this cinematic organ synth that comes out of nowhere. I like the contrast of these calm beats getting interrupted, almost at the risk of ruining the entire song.
“War Over Land” is a beautiful, orchestral crescendo with an incredible choir. It feels like a finale. But then there’s six tracks after it.
Ok, so now we got “Bridges on Fire” which is sounding about the same—wait, is that… Buzzy Lee? BUZZY LEE. Instant classic. 10/10. Next question.
Then there’s “No Strippers in Heaven,” which, hilariously, has this beautiful choir instrumental that makes it feel like we’re right outside the gates. And then he adds dubstep on top of it. The irony and the contrast actually make it tolerable this time, though.
But again, it’s the SAME flow. Again and again. He’s constantly trying new stuff with the beats but damn it this is the same flow. I don’t hate it but yeesh try something else.
“Chat” is another calmer entry with a soothing synth melody. This time, thank god, he slows the flow down. It still sounds similar, but even a little slower made a difference for me, especially when he references victims of police brutality like Ryan Hinton; Peggy supports his father Rodney Hinton Jr.’s methods of vengeance and going a step further saying they should free Derek Chauvin so he can kill him. Very calming song.
“1st Amendment” holy shit you gotta listen to this song man he rhymed Charlie Kirk four times in a row this is peak. But seriously, some of the political messaging would hit harder if Peggy was less of a sensationalist.
And then the outro whose title is too long is a nice little guitar instrumental to end things.
After writing this review, I saw Pitchfork gave it a 5.5. I wouldn’t go that far—but only 0.5 higher lmao. What I will praise Peggy for is always trying something new. Every song is filled to the brim with ideas, and despite many of those ideas falling flat, he’s not like most other rappers and hip hop artists who find a beat and just loop it for the whole song.
What I will say is that this is a mediocre album with some great moments. And I’m happy to say some of these songs will be going into my playlist. “Burning Hammer,” “The Ghost of Emmett Till,” “Lights,” “New Era,” “Valentine’s Day Freestyle,” “War Over Land,” & “Chat.” The rest I plan on forgetting.
3/5
by Anthony