JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs [2019]

JPEGMAFIA has never been shy in his capacity as a controversial figure. From the beginning, with his Black Ben Carson album titles, and his I Just Killed A Cop and Now I’m Horny song titles, it has seemed that his reason for making music was to provoke and to prod, while also releasing the anger and compressed grievances from his mind in the process. Listening to Black Ben Carson and Veteran, there were times where I would only feel bad, or even sorry for Peggy, that this violent strike at culture was coming from a place where maybe everything wasn’t 100% ok. Veteran in particular, his critically acclaimed album (among the underground/Bandcamp dwellers at least) from last year, reinforced this to me, with an overall violent assault of an album being brought down by humor that maybe at times seemed a bit bitter, that at times would leave a bad taste in my mouth. I think that those two projects in particular were stepping stones that were instrumental in getting Peggy to where he is today as a fully realized, focused, honed, and eclectic genius, not only in his more subdued poignant humor (to an extent; he still says outrageous shit of course), but also in his production style, which has evolved into something that may not pack as much of a wallop of sound as his previous project, but touches on so many different emotional states and levels, going so far beyond the juvenile aggression that has followed him up till this point.

This should be everyone’s new screen saver; Senpai Peggy demands it.

                The biggest difference, hands down, from previous releases is JPEGMAFIA himself, who has doubled down on the more melodic elements of his music, creating a sweeter (at least in comparison to previous work) vocal performance across the album. But even when he does dip into the more aggressive and hard-hitting flows, it never feels like misplaced aggression as it would have on previous outings; almost every instance of this is in the service of the artistic nature of the track (like Kenan vs. Kel, where it plays into the dual nature of the track), or it’s pointed and witty. I never doubted his rapping, but in the face of the leaps and strides he has made in the melodic department I wouldn’t blame people for overlooking the harder tracks. Not only is his voice legitimately good (although it’s rarely ever heard naturally), but his talents for vocal manipulation is unmatched. Whether it’s vocal distortion, layering, autotune, artificial harmonization, etc., almost every bit of his singing is fascinating to listen too, maybe not for the lyrics over simply the way he sounds. Coupled with the instrumentals and the production quirks he throws into the mix, his voice will blend and fade in and out of the beat seamlessly, marrying the rapper/producer roles into truly one entity that can be difficult to determine where one ends and another begins. Of course this isn’t a bad thing, as a large appeal of this album is the fluidity and cohesiveness of the entire project, front to back. I would also like a state that, despite the album being so difficult to follow at times, it never feels abstract for the purpose of abstraction, or cryptic in a way that (for shits and giggles) other peers like Death Grips often dip into; besides his colorful metaphors and euphemisms, JPEGMAFIA is relatively direct with what he means to say, but warrants and rewards repeat listens.

                It’s difficult to speak on the instrumental palate of the album, simply because it is so incredibly eclectic and varied as a project. Many tracks will have three, four, even five beat switches, and even then he’ll return to ideas at any time. This, paired with the ambient samples, conversational samples, random-ass-object samples, hell even video game soundtrack samples, creates a listening experience that you can never nail down; you’ll never be able to get to a point in the album and understand where it’s going, because Peggy will then come with another challenging passage. These things might come across as me saying the album is scattered and fragmented, but the entire opposite is true; somehow he is able to weave these disparate parts together with clever transitions that rarely missteps. There are a lot of different sounds to be found here, from genres like hardcore hip-hop, electronic, pop, vaporwave, ambient, industrial, there’s even some trap drums and flows on here. It’s rarely strictly one genre for the duration of a track: Beta Male Strategies for example starts with some synth-pop (think Bjork), only to transition into some rough lo-fi hip-hop, then transitioning back to its initial synths. That example is a simple one, with many tracks changing many more times, and every full-length track switching it up at least once.

                If we need to talk about negatives on this album, I can easily sum it up with two items: the track Lifes Hard, Heres a Song About Sorrel, and the overall title of the record, All My Heroes Are Cornballs. Lifes Hard is one of the shorter songs amongst the tracklist and is the only track on the record that I feel needs to be cut. The singing and autotune is a smidge *too much*, and the lyrics are kind of nonsense. It also slightly breaks up the flow of the record between Prone! And Thot Tactics. The album’s title isn’t a big issue, as it truly encapsulates the message of the album, like Veteran, but personally I feel it’s longwinded.

I think JPEGMAFIA has reached his peak potential with All My Heroes Are Cornballs, letting down that curtain of aggressive camp and showing us, in his own slightly twisted way, his vulnerabilities. Something he speaks on often on the album is how he perceives his fame, and how in the past year he has gone from Bandcamp obscurity to a counter-culture hero; this album, as I see it, serves as Peggy telling us that being comfortable with yourself enough that you are your own hero is important for not only your artistic progression but also for your mental health; but, beyond that, he is telling you straight up that believing in yourself and making the dreams you have for yourself come true is corny. If that’s true, then JPEGMAFIA may be the biggest cornball this year.

If you are at all interested in listening to All My Heroes Are Cornballs, here are some links to some streaming services. Also linked is JPEG’s Bandcamp page, where he has his new album up for Name Your Price; I highly recommend supporting Peggy’s new project with whatever you want to give.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music/Bandcamp