JPEGMAFIA - Veteran ALBUM REVIEW

dummy dummy dummy dummy dummy here the Internet's busiest music nerd hope you're doing well and it's time for a review of the new jpeg mafia album veteran this is the second full-length album from Baltimore rapper and producer jpg mafia aka Peggy whose music I've been aware of for a little while now communist slow jams black Ben Carson that collaborative EP project or whatever it was he had with freaky from which one of my favorite singles of 2016 came I might vote for Donald Trump previously Peggy has kind of been on the cutting edge of this recent movement of a very noisy abrasive experimental rap music but while his material was certainly admirable I didn't find it to be all that distinct so going into this new project over here veteran I didn't quite know what to expect I was just kind of crossing my fingers hoping for something fresher just kind of strolling into it because I was vaguely interested in his previous work and I got to say the dude did it on this album he did it this thing is 19 tracks it's 47 minutes and I was just overwhelmed by how sharp and textured and creative and experimental and off the beaten path and yet how catchy this record is in comparison with his last projects Peggy is definitely working with sounds that are a bit trendier this time around definitely more dynamic there are moments on this thing where a flow or a groove or a beat might remind me a little bit of what I might hear of like from little Ozzy Verte like from an Uzi vert project even a few moments where I heard like a touch of take Hays the race but again these seem like very mild influences sort of like Peggy is embracing these sounds as a means or as a vehicle to make a larger stranger artistic statement because while certainly there are whiffs of these more mainstream elements in his music the production and the song we hang and the lyricism is totally whacked but still definitely something I think fans of artists like the cool kids or especially clipping could certainly appreciate the lyrics on thing are kind of a mix of very self-aware like self-imposed ignorant raw absurdity dark humor and just unrelenting confrontation really confrontation with anything Peggy sets his sights on whether it be moderate Lib tardes or the alt-right misogynists as well as feminists the president bloggers soundcloud rappers overly sensitive white people I mean there are songs on this thing titled I cannot wait until Morrissey dies there's also a track on here titled my thoughts on neogaf dying and then the dejected repeated chorus on that track is I don't care I don't care of course this thing is littered with very odd strange references from Mortal Kombat to tinder the album's opening track contains a verse where he says that he wants a with long hair like Mike C town Mike C town of dead and hip-hop when he said that when he said that line I felt it I felt it oh me too man to deeper into the album Peggy also promises to never go blonde like Kanye and Johnny Rotten I want little B we'll probably go down as one of my favorite rap lines of 2018 but J pig mafias lyrics on this thing do go beyond funny bars and quotable one-liners there is an incredibly nihilistic satirical and very cutthroat tone to this album that I love it's just as heady as it is animalistic there's so many good things with this record I don't know I don't even know where to start I don't know where to start I mean there is the verse on baby I'm bleeding which is probably going to be one of the hardest things anybody hears all year there's a moment on the album where Peggy samples the legendary intro to the old dirty bastard song going down where he takes some of the throaty noises ol Dirty Bastard was making and obviously the and turns it into this like wild throat singing loop and just wraps over that relentlessly along with like these really strange fuddy drum hits there's kind of a watery guitar transition at one point that track2 it's one of the wildest instrumentals I've heard all year there's also the very off-kilter but sleek thug tears which features these sweetly some vocals with some light processing on them it sort of sounds like some alternative R&B from another reality there's also rock-and-roll is dead which features the strange popping samples soaked in reverb like cavernous reverb it's eerie it's strange it's freaky and pairs interestingly well with Peggy shouted rap verses eventually it blossoms into this really moody piece of cloud wrap which again is one of the many crazy sudden transitions and be switches all over this album Peggy manages to pack a lot into many of these songs as far as changes and new directions or detours even into the songs that are on the shorter side on a lot of these tracks you get an intro you get a verse and then really it could go anywhere from there the song germs kicks off with what's essentially just like a bit of a glitch hop vibe with monotone rap verses and then all of a sudden Peggy breaks into these screamed raspy falsetto vocals that they kind of remind me of Prince meanwhile another vocal is layered onto the track where he's making comedic jabs of people with liberal arts degrees like he's he's not taking himself for the world that he exists in too seriously it seems like he's trying to take the piss out of everything which is kind of another thing I like about the record it's not just being abrasive and aggressive for the sake of catharsis it's actually trying to prod and provoke anybody who's listening most likely in an attempt to get them to reflect on what their sensitivities might be I could really go over nearly every instrumental on this record and find incredibly intriguing sounds one-of-a-kind unique sample ideas very freaky percussive concepts I guess just go into this album expecting to hear that sort of thing trusting me that they're there as far as downsides I will say there are at least a handful of songs on this thing that I think could have been longer could have been extended places where I think the ideas that Peggy was delivering were very sharp and could have been fleshed out a bit more like the Lib track which I thought was hilarious that song really could have gone on for five minutes and it would have laughed the whole way from start to finish and there are definitely a few cuts as well where I think Peggy while the songs are longer and are a bit more gratifying he does get into the weeds a little bit Williamsburg I would say is a prime example of that so maybe into the future Peggy's long game could use some work but the vast majority of tracks on this thing are pretty short pretty all over the place and I do like the almost random disheveled quality of this project it makes it feel like the nastiest gnarliest craziest mixtape I've ever heard the album's unpredictability is kind of a quality that helps it because as the tracklist moves along Peggy continues to just kind of deliver left hook after left hook and even though the tracks on here may be short not the most satisfying they all kind of weave together into this very messy tapestry and as the album goes along it just kind of gets freakier and more harrowing and more hostile especially when you hit some of the finishing tracks on this thing 1488 and curb stomp overall love this thing one of the most off-the-wall and creative rap projects I've heard in a while feeling a decent too strong eight and gave it an eight but you forgot to flannel oh that's right I did throw it to me man we transition have you given this album a listen did you love it did you hate it what would you rate it you're the best you're the best what should I review next hit the like if you like please subscribe and please don't cry just leave a thoughtful comment in the comments if you're feeling thoughtful you have any Fantan oh you're the best you're the best you're the best over here next to my head is another review you should check out click on that or click on the link to subscribe to the channel JPEG mafia fan Tony Oni Oni forever

Channel: theneedledrop

Views: 877,257

Keywords: album, review, music, reviews, indie, underground, new, latest, lyrics, full song, listen, track, concert, live, performance, update, the needle drop, anthony fantano, vlog, talk, discussion, music nerd, loved, hiphoprvwz, jpegmafia, peggy, veteran, black ben carson, i might vote, baby i'm bleeding, rap, hip hop, trap, soundcloud, deathbomb arc, neogaf, morrissey, williamsburg, macaulay culkin, clipping, death grips, baltimore

Id: S9gg0JOTF2E

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 23 2018