Lay Down My Life For You (Director's Cut)

The fifth official studio album by JPEGMAFIA appeared more than a year after Scaring the Hoes, his long-promised and extraordinarily well-received collaboration with Danny Brown. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU shares a lot of the sonic hallmarks common to Peggys work, from abrasive, disjointed production to troll-ish lyrics and song titles. He leans a lot more into rock influences on this album, with metal guitars blaring on several tracks, usually popping up in well-timed bursts and providing a welcome release. "SIN MIEDO" mashes up several different styles -- ghetto house, blog-house, indie sleaze (thanks to recurring chords which clearly resemble Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Heads Will Roll"), Jersey club, blown-out metal -- resulting in one of the rappers most hyped-up, exciting tracks. Brazilian funk producer DJ RaMeMes co-produced the exhilarating "its dark and hell is hot," which is tightly wound and has a high-BPM bounce to it. "New Black History" has synthy, industrial-tinged beats co-produced by Flume and effortless guest raps by Vince Staples. Denzel Curry cracks loads of hilarious, foul-mouthed insults and boasts on "JPEGULTRA!," a whirlwind of brash, psychedelic energy which ends up with a surprisingly lush final section. The remainder of the album contains some of Peggys most introspective material since 2013s infamous The Ghost~Pop Tape. Singer/songwriter Buzzy Lee, a previous collaborator, returns on "Dont Put Anything on the Bible," nearly getting the song to herself, and the drumless closing track "i recovered from this" features direct, confessional lyrics over gentle acoustic guitars, strings, and vocal harmonies. JPEGMAFIAs confrontational personality can be overbearing at times, especially to listeners who dont consider themselves to be chronically online, but his production is always stellar, and his sheer creativity is unparalleled. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU is up there with LP! as the artists most accessible work to date. ~ Paul Simpson