Get the latest gossip
Jpegmafia: I Lay Down My Life For You review – scattergun brilliance
The US rapper brings reflection as well as energising polemic to his compelling fifth studio album
Surprise-released just over a week ago, the fifth solo album by Brooklyn-born hip-hop outlier Jpegmafia(Barrington Hendricks, Peggy for short) delivers more of the scattergun brilliance last heard on 2023’s standout LP Scaring the Hoes, his outing alongside maverick rapper Danny Brown. Here, 90s glance-backs – such as Jade’s Don’t Walk Away, or Method Man’s Bring the Pain – do battle with abrasive guitars, while found sound atmospheres and Brazilian favela funk rub up against references to the NBA, Hendricks’s service ( Exmilitary) and plenty of granular rap score-settling. Newsworthy passages include New Black History with Vince Staples, which restates Hendricks’s customary anti-Drake stance, but his scabrous, funny, exasperated raps keep pace with his jump-cut production skills throughout.
Or read this on The Guardian