JPEGMAFIA

All My Heroes Are Cornballs

Any which way I look at it, I see in its 45 minutes all the signs of a true classic, an album whose daring attitude and commitment to odd sonic luxuries future emissaries of the great tradition of experimental hip-hop music should only hope to emulate.

Veteran was a beautifully disturbing album, and All My Heroes Are Cornballs is an even better hodgepodge of empowered tumult.

With All My Heroes Are Cornballs, JPEGMAFIA captures the feelings of existing in an era fuelled by mindless scrolling and compulsive tweeting, positioning himself as both a participant and vocal critic of the happenings of the current millennia.

On All My Heroes Are Cornballs, experimental rapper and producer JPEGMAFIA broadens his visceral online image and sounds into a more vulnerable, humanizing, and melodic project.

Ultimately, the album is challenging and uncompromising as it makeshifts a rallying cry for the disenfranchised Millennial Redditor; a manifesto for the misunderstood.

All My Heroes are Cornballs can be seen as a welcome, if not an unorthodox sequel to 2018’s Veteran. Cornballs still possesses Peggy’s trademark sense of humor, but the moments that impress the most are when the music is somber and meditative.

On All My Heroes Are Cornballs, Peggy’s process from production to release has been fresher and faster, and in turn the songs feel more raw, less tweaked with and the conflict he creates between the melody and rhythm hit harder.

For those not attuned to Peggy’s ability to tap into the zeitgeist, All My Heroes Are Cornballs won’t provide a lyrical turning point. But as a showcase for his skills as a producer, it should win over even the most dyed in the wool critics.

All My Heroes Are Cornballs serves as an electronic manifesto for his fans, guerilla warfare of the auditory kind.

I’m not disappointed. That’s for sure.

JPEGMAFIA makes music that is outwardly political and dissatisfied while also being ironic, cynical and funny.

All My Heroes Are Cornballs manages a mellow, even reserved instrumental tone without losing any of the scathing social commentary or frenetic energy that defined earlier work.