JPEGMAFIA (or, Peggy for short) is back to rattle your brain as he lets you take an even further step into his world with new album, All My Heroes Are Cornballs.
The energetic, mysterious, and high octane rapper hailing from Baltimore, Maryland is back. After a little over a year since the release of Peggy’s critically acclaimed album, Veteran, the man with one of the saddest hairlines in history returns with one of the best projects to come out this year both sonically and lyrically. Peggy has been rolling out the concept and promo for this project for the last couple of months. We’ve waited and watched for all of Peggy’s updates online for the very moment to be able to feast our ears on what he has notoriously been referring to as a “disappointment”, and the time has finally come. Though it’s been a busy year for JPEGMAFIA (he’s been on tour, and has even had some festival appearances), this project was already finished last year, and was mixed and mastered in 2019—as he recently mentioned in his Instagram post dedicated to the album release.
This project is self-produced, performed and written with some featured vocals from artists like Vegyn, Helena Deland, and Buzzy Lee. Considering that Peggy is quite possibly at his best on this album, this project is a perfect introduction for those who aren’t familiar with JPEGMAFIA and may even be listening to him for the first time. Peggy gives a full range of his talents, personality, and versatility on the record. While listening, there are times you’ll feel like there’s a direct threat to your existence; complete with an overwhelming amount of gun and trash talk, while at other times, it feels like a rugged, yet velvety embrace. That being said, this project gives us the classic Peggy who punches you dead in the face with production like the grimy and highly stylistic “JPEGMAFIA TYPE BEAT”, and fearsome lyricism in tracks like PRONE!” and “Post Verified Lifestyle”. There’s also quite a bit of sing-y tracks on this album with ample use of Auto-Tune, like in “BasicBitchTearGas” and “Life’s Hard Here’s A Song About Sorrel”, along with other showcases of Peggy’s vocal range and style throughout the 18 song track list.
The title of this album suggests that perhaps the people that Peggy ought to be looking up to are actually not very admirable at all. The themes you hear throughout just about every song, is Peggy taking aim at the fakes, his haters, and the pretentious losers in the industry that he feels are unbelievably corny and beneath him. He starts with a very obvious message in opening track: “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot” where Peggy sends out his prayers for any enemies and foes that wage against him. Along with that, there are tons of very clear messages in this album about Peggy’s aggressions, his intolerance for bullshit, and the ever-so-present reminder that he most likely will shoot you. Oh yeah. This album is littered with gun references in tracks like “PTSD”, and in the title track, “All My Heroes Are Cornballs”. There’s also a lot of references to Twitter, like in “Beta Male Strategies”, where Peggy speaks directly to people who run their mouths online but won’t do so in person. There’s also plenty of lyrics that highlight the fact that Peggy does not feel he has any real competition in the industry; like in the track “Rap Grow Old & Die x No Child Left Behind”, where he raps: “Been beefin’ with bums. I should find healthier game”. Then, there’s a line from from “Papi I Missed U” that almost completely describes JPEGMAFIA, where he says: “I’m a terrorist, I don’t spit rap, bitch, I spit rhetoric”. With that being said, the overall attitude you hear when listening to this album is that Peggy knows he’s a real rap-god and will not only threaten you and put you in your rightful place, but will also satirically rap circles around you to prove the very point of the title of this project. All of his heroes are cornballs, and JPEGMAFIA is here to let them know.
As far as sonically, the best way to describe the beats on this album is if the digital matrix had a sound, that would be a JPEGMAFIA beat. It sounds like a mashup of a malfunctioning computer simulation, as well as pedals falling off of a cherry blossom tree in the spring. In other words, the production is beautiful chaos. For those that do or don’t know by now, JPEGMAFIA beats are intricate, unstable, and often hard to predict or anticipate—all things that add to the highly refined and recognizable aesthetic that makes Peggy’s beats so beautiful and just straight up good. The staple “You think you know me” tag can be heard throughout each track, as well as a lot of beautiful guitar chords, random ad- libs, clapping sounds and glitch-y beat switches and transitions.
All in all, the only thing lacking on this project was a more vast subject-matter. A lot of the tracks felt like they weren’t long enough or were cut too short because of the fair amount of audio clips of conversations, and cover song snippets—all things that merely add an unnecessary fluff. However, this was a very well strung together album that was deliberate, open, honest, and very real. The most enjoyable element of the entire thing, is how free you can tell Peggy is. He wasn’t afraid to try anything new, and in doing so, executed all his ideas and messages very well.
Rating: 8/10
You can listen to the album below:
FNGR FOOD 