JPEGMAFIA’s “All My Heroes Are Cornballs” is surprisingly focused, subtle and striking for an album that features everything from aggressive rap verses over industrial beats to an acoustic cover of TLC’s ’90s hit “No Scrubs.”
Released on Friday, “All My Heroes Are Cornballs” is a refreshing blend of modern rap and pop. On the album, the two genres are fused together with dense production and unpredictable lyrics.
After a long underground career, Baltimore-based rapper, singer and producer JPEGMAFIA, also known by his fans as Peggy, broke out in 2018 with “Veteran,” a disorienting collection of abrasive tracks condemning everyone from basement-dwelling bloggers to facist thugs.
The strange promotional cycle for “All My Heroes Are Cornballs” promised an album even more wild than “Veteran,” with Peggy calling it “the disappointment” on Twitter and releasing YouTube videos where musicians and celebrities react in shock to songs from the album.
Although “All My Heroes Are Cornballs” delivers surprising moments of serenity, Peggy still raps some of his most aggressive verses over his strangest beats yet.
On “Post Verified Lifestyle,” Peggy responds to his newfound popularity with confident verses over ghostly vocal samples and boom-bap drums.
Except for a formless midsection emphasizing alien samples, the beat remains jazzy and relaxed, giving Peggy space for fantastic lines like “I survived through the slums” and “Label say that Iʼm fatal to fund.”
Peggy complements another off-kilter beat with aggressive flows on “Papi I Missed U,” delivering tongue-in-cheek quotables calling rednecks’ tears “What a beverage” and asking if it angers them “‘cause you see me up in your Whole Foods?”
Like most tracks on the album, “Papi I Missed U” features an ending beat switch, travelling through haunting chants before fading away with peaceful piano arpeggios.
Even the interlude tracks, often not much longer than a minute, feature surprising structures and beat switches.
“JPEGMAFIA TYPE BEAT” builds a heavy industrial beat around techno samples before transforming into a contemplative mix of soft synths and hand claps.
The dramatic transformation runs its course in less than a minute.
On “BBW,” Peggy shows off his versatility as a producer, putting together a strikingly subtle boom-bap beat that channels the soulful samples and scratchy drums of producers like Madlib.
JPEGMAFIA delivers a versatile performance, featuring both aggressive rapping and a melodic hook that earns him the title of “Black Brian Wilson,” referencing The Beach Boys’ lead singer, that he claims in his verses and the track’s abbreviated name.
Peggy sings more on “All My Heroes Are Cornballs” than any of his recent albums, creating beautifully strange songs with catchy hooks and raw performances.
On the album’s lead single, “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot,” Peggy flows over warm keys, screams over industrial drums and finally delivers a striking autotuned falsetto on the soaring chorus.
This track fuses all of Peggy’s sound into one cohesive piece, and after all the passionate vocal runs and hard raps, it is easy to believe when he sings “I put my soul into every bar, into every verse, into every rhyme.”
JPEGMAFIA is at his most vulnerable on “Free The Frail” where he faces depression and apathy with lines like, “I played with fire, I can’t retire, I need the bread, stat.”
After an unforgettable hook over extra layers of nostalgic percussion, featured vocalist Helena Deland closes the track with acapella harmonies reminiscent of the delicate vocals Billie Eilish incorporates into her best tracks.
If you are looking for music that can find beauty in the darkest and most chaotic parts of life, JPEGMAFIA might have just released your new favorite album.
