I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU by JPEGMAFIA

This August, JPEGMAFIA’s dropped his new album I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, and shook the experimental hip-hop world.

The name JPEGMAFIA has become synonymous with experimental hiphop, something evident in internet music nerd circles, and certainly in the halls of WKCR (where his Danny Brown collab record SCARING THE HOES was the station’s second collective favorite album of the year in 2023). The Baltimoreoriginating rapper, real name Barrington Hendricks, first gained mass attention with his critically acclaimed 2018 album Veteran, where he showcased abrasive production and bombastic verses with sometimescontroversial subject matter. Hendricks’ no-filter style is an acquired taste, but this new album is one of his most consistent and palatable releases, with clean-cut sample loops and features from a couple of his beloved rap colleagues. At the same time, the addition of punk-rock guitars to the instrumentals of these songs still grants them the trademark JPEGMAFIA edge.

JPEGMAFIA has played with harsh noises and aggressive sounds on his past records. However, his decision to go full punk, injecting

hard-hitting rock guitars and live-sounding drums into the songs on this newest album, molds those noises into something more approachable. Take the intro track “i scream this in the mirror before i interact with anyone,” which begins with a subtle shaking of drums. Hendricks drops a couple clever basketball bars (“If I was an NBA player, I'd be Dillon Brooks, but worse”) before the instrumental broadens into a canvas of guitars. Much like other Peggy albums, these cheeky references via aggressive delivery are a good primer for what the listener will hear on the next 13 tracks. As far as this

newfound rock sound, the following song “SIN MIEDO” features a rock arrangement that almost broaches dance territory, with a staccato drum pattern. “don’t rely on other men” has another standout guitar moment, with a searing riff breaking through the song’s pulsating and threatening beat. Many of these breathtaking solos on I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU are performed by producer Alex Goldblatt, who also worked on the grammy nominated 6LACK album Since I Have a Lover. By working with Goldblatt, Hendricks ensures a soulful, guitar-driven sound that sticks out compared to his past work.

After the hard-hitting first couple of tracks, “I’ll Be Right There” is a soulful interlude. Despite the romantic sample of Jade’s “Don’t Walk Away,” Hendricks keeps his lyrical content snarky and fierce, primarily taking shots at his hip-hop contemporary Freddie Gibbs, who he has engaged in beef with since last year. For other key tracks of I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, it is not just the bombastic production that makes them memorable, but the marriage of that sound with classic hiphop samples. The punk-dance sound of “SIN MIEDO” also features an irreverent vocal loop from 2 Live Crew’s “Hoochie Mama.” Meanwhile, “vulgar display of power” is enhanced by a prominent interpolation of “Bring the Pain” by Method Man, with the Wu-Tang veteran’s vocals sliding between aggressive guitars. That song is not the only reference to Wu-Tang Clan on the album- On the following track “Exmilitary,” Hendricks uses a sample loop from 36 Chambers classic “Tearz” (which itself sampled “After Laughter” by Wendy Rene) as a backbone for what may be his best song to date. At around five minutes, “Exmilitary” is the record’s longest song, and it really makes you feel it in the best way possible. The production effortlessly shifts back and forth between the sample mentioned above, a raucous guitar riff, and a stunning electronic section.

If you’re a fan of hip-hop who likes to reach below the surface of the genre, Vince Staples and Denzel Curry are two names

you will undoubtedly have come across. On this JPEGMAFIA album, their features are standout moments and add another layer of hip-hop accessibility to the project. Staples appears on “New Black History,” jumping in on a menacing instrumental bookended by samples of Future’s “Covered N Money.” (Interestingly, Staples sampled the same song on his 2015 track “Señorita,” while Peggy has a song from 2020 also called “Covered In Money.” Perhaps this legacy of sampling and interpolation is part of the ‘new black history’ the song is named after.) Meanwhile, Curry, who previously collaborated with Hendricks on the songs “Vengeance” and “BALD!” and is beloved among hip-hop fans for his energy and versatility, is a welcome presence on the track “JPEGULTRA.” The two rappers trade verses as well as boisterous spoken word interludes over a dynamic, horn-driven instrumental that even switches to acoustic guitar for the final verse. For rap fans unfamiliar with the eccentric experimentation of JPEGMAFIA, perhaps seeing these fan-favorite MCs can help persuade them to dip their toes into his world.

I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU could be seen (per a revelatory verse on the soulful “either on or off the drugs”) as a response to the complicated and embattled release process of LP!, the rapper’s fourth album that he claimed was “rushed to complete.” In contrast, this album’s polished nature showcases some of the most confident performances Barrington Hendricks has displayed thus far in his career. At the same time, by using a hard rock sound as well as cleverly chosen samples from hiphop history, JPEGMAFIA has kept true to his ever-changing identity as an experimental rap artist.

Ben Rothman can be regularly heard on the hip-hop show Offbeat, Fridays 1:00AM5:00AM (Thursday nights).