JPEGMAFIA: All my Heroes are Cornballs

Prior to the release of JPEGMAFIA’s latest album All my Heroes are Cornballs, he frequently took to twitter, and inform his fans of the oncoming “Disappointment.” In his interactions with collaborators, he would film them giving tongue in cheek criticism of the unreleased album. Kennybeats said it “Wasn’t even music”, Parker Corey of Injury Reserve called it “Kamala Harris rap”. With so many tweets emphasizing exactly how “Disappointing” his forthcoming album would be, its both ironic and relieving that the album is in fact, not a disappointment. Far from it.

JPEGMAFIA’s previous release intrigued me with it’s glitchy, dark, and dynamic production. On All my Heroes are Cornballs his production capitalizes on its strengths. Glitchy vocals, creative percussion, and jarring changes between songs are built into every track on the project. I couldn’t really compare the beats on this album to anyone else. They are their own brand of weird. There is a noticeable dichotomy between many songs on the album. These tracks fall along a spectrum that range from the aggressive to the comforting. This is illustrated well on the second track “Kenan Vs. Kel”. The first half of the track is smooth and ethereal, and ends in silky singing, but then takes a turn to production which is angry, heavy, and contains in your face, aggressive rapping. This versatility can be seen throughout the entire album. JPEGMAFIA is capable of creating songs that are hard hitting rap bangers, but can also create songs which juxtapose his glitchy brand of production with melodic, light vocals.

As for lyrical content, JPEGMAFIA is known for his quirky, comical, and sometimes offensive lyrics. His bars on this album are as confident as ever. From the intimidating to the laughable, the bars on this project are very real. His flows can be fast paced one moment, and be slow croons the next. He touches on subjects that range from Batman, to police brutality, to the Beach Boys, and does so effortlessly. Hell there is even a strange, glitchy cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs”, and it works. The songs and the subjects that lie within all melt together into something that only JPEGMAFIA could have created. This album is a reflection of himself, and who he is as an artist. He may have joked about this album being disappointing, but he knew it wouldn’t be. I feel that he was proud of it, and had a lot of fun making it. I sure as hell had fun listening to it.

Originally published in the Fulcrum, October 7, 2019.