JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU

The meme era’s cartoon villain, JPEGMAFIA returns at his most abrasive and confrontational with the characteristic trail of destruction in his wake. “This is an official decision: I don’t give a fuck,” in his own words. Five albums deep into his all-gas no-brakes run, despite the relentless genre-blending and beat-switching, Peggy has yet to misstep. By adopting a darker tone, adding metal-influenced guitars and pushing further than ever into dissecting his trolling tendencies, Peggy morphs his erratic swagger into a fearsome march. Not only one of the most intriguing and thought-provoking rappers of his era, he effortlessly proves to be one the most inventive producers. Basing entire tracks on five-word vocal clips from Succession or dipping into Brazilian funk, ‘I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU’ proves impossible to pin down, writhing and thrashing into seemingly more impossible forms. Throw in some inch-perfect guest spots from Denzel Curry and Vince Staples, and some production credits for Flume and Kenny Beats, and it’s all too obvious – despite its scattergun aesthetics – that the album is working from an impressively solid and cohesive foundation. It’s a worthy platform for JPEGMAFIA’s verbal melee of relentless referencing, fourth-wall trashing and surprising introspection. More often than not it’s funny, perceptive and weirdly philosophical, perfectly exemplified in ‘Exmilitary’’s lines – “Every morning, I get down on my knees for a God that I can’t see / Every tweet, it come with a cost, every enemy, painted as soft / If you break up, delete it and crop, fuck my ex and fuck every cop.” Despite the winks, nods and middle fingers, you’re only seconds from the next shout-out hook, the next searing guitar break, the next total dynamic shift. For a guy who always sounds ready to go toe-to-toe with his loudest critic, JPEGMAFIA unerringly shows the skill, finesse and the sheer unique button-pushing mastery to gain nothing but fans.