JPEGMAFIA’s Experimental Rap: Eccentric Meditations of a Grumpy Rap Auteur

★★★★☆

On April 30th, JPEGMAFIA — aka Peggy, as he is fondly called by his fans — announced that his forthcoming album Experimental Rap, would be out on May 21st, 2026.

For the uninitiated, this terse statement alone could never start a rap beef, but most Peggy fans know by now that he is the king of one-sided beefs. In no time, a slew of posts about an online beef between Peggy and fellow experimental rap artist Earl Sweatshirt emerged.

The beef was nothing like what we have come to expect in recent years; they mostly restricted themselves to smug comments that sounded like playground insults. Thereafter, JPEG being ever the impish instigator went on an online diatribe of sorts at no one specific, only to deactivate his socials soon after, presumably in reaction to what fans perceived as some misplaced anger.

Despite the fatigue from his inflated, leather-clad persona of recent years, Peggy has always been an internet troll. Songs like ‘Panic Emoji’ and ‘Flame Emoji’ (stylised as literal emojis) bear the watermark of a terminally online troglodyte.

For all the recent criticism of his over-the-top bravado and edgelord stylings, JPEGMAFIA’s music has uniquely mirrored a generation that was equally nourished and ruined by the internet’s pervasive presence. Some even call him the founder of vaporwave which is a separate debate altogether.

It is against this backdrop of petty beefs and sporadic outbursts that Peggy delivers his latest offering — that is enigmatic, eccentric and offers a snapshot of the musical zeitgeist he has cultivated over the past decade.

Experimental Rap opens with a track stylised in Japanese kanji, ‘投影の芸術’ which roughly translates to ‘The Art of Projection’. A jab at his detractors which is confirmed by an interpolation of the black comedian Paul Mooney goading a white audience for their oversensitivity.

Soon, the opening track’s soaring synths and angelic female vocals dissolve into a rapid-fire of goading ad-libs — “Whatcha gonna do?!” — before dropping us into familiar territory with the promotional single, ‘babygirl’.

The track is cleverly peppered with a pounding 808 bass that anchors the rowdy ad-libs, while Peggy delivers some of his most incensed bars, calling out everything from “crackers” and incel school shooters to online “Karens”.

All the instrumental sparseness of ‘babygirl’ is quickly swallowed by heavy guitars; a nod to his metal-infused 2024 offering, I Lay Down My Life For You. But that is all you will find in common with his last record as Peggy slips and slides between glitch, dubstep and industrial textures.

With a track-list averaging around 2 minutes per song, Experimental Rap plays like blasts from a shotgun. Tracks like ‘Degenerates Prayer’ blend dubstep with the sound of automatic gunfire.

While the glitchy brilliance of ‘Meet the Dealers’ with DATPIFFMAFIA (a welcome callback to ‘REBOUND!’ from 2021’s LP!) is an experimental rap fever dream that showcases some of JPEG’s most technical rapping.

For most of the album, JPEG appears to be squeezing every last bit of production nous and rap mastery at his disposal. After all, in early promotion for the record, he promised to lay claim to the title of Experimental Rap — and called it rightfully his.

True to form, JPEG does not shy away from paying homage to idols like the disgraced Ye, formerly know as Kanye West. He even addresses their controversial meeting and his subsequent production work on 2024’s VULTURES — with the lyric: “Since I met Ye I’m dead to you…”.

On the track ‘Lights’, JPEG samples Ye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy era banger ‘All of the Lights’ but the result is a tepid club bop that leaves much to be desired.

Tracks like ‘$ (Money)’, ‘¥ (Yen)’ and ‘War Over Land’ are absolute standouts on the album, each distinct for its wildly imaginative production and music videos that are as memorable as they are exciting.

Where this album might grate on listeners is his over-reliance on sped-up raps. Albeit technical, the raps tend to ring like a monotone. But where the raps feel repetitive JPEG has a wealth of aggressive textures and unexpected beat switches to soothe the most fervent rap fanatics.

Overall, JPEGMAFIA delivers an aggressive tour de force that gets better with every listen. The sprawling 52-minute runtime touches on obscure micro-genres like rage rap and grunge, offering a chaotic universe which always keeps you guessing.

[embed]