LP! has enough laughs and smirks to scan as an overall fun time, but the lyrics further plumb the depths of JPEG’s contempt for people who’ve crossed him. One moment he’s shouting out Bad Bunny and the late MF DOOM, and the next he’s interpolating Britney Spears’ “.Baby One More Time.” This fusion of past and present is playful without feeling contrived, the beats’ minimal nature never diluting the raw mashups on display. And then there’s “OG!,” which takes a sampled beatbox and rapping session and adds drums that blast like mortar shots.
A three-song run near the middle of the album typifies these strengths: The ghostly wails and funky bass behind JPEG’s thundering voice on “REBOUND!” are immediately followed by “💯,” a sea of synths flowing around a warped vocal sample. JPEG’s sense of humor is clearly intact, and his myriad influences continue to pull his work in strange directions. Even the project’s title-the most basic descriptor imaginable with an exclamation point at the end-feels like a middle finger or at least a metatextual rib poke. LP! supercharges the ire and catharsis of this moment in his career, playing up the contrast between JPEG’s abrasive cheekiness and his warmest batch of beats to date.įor starters, LP! has been released in two forms: the “Online” version-uploaded to streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, etc.-and the “Offline” version available on YouTube and Bandcamp, which boasts a handful of extra songs, extended versions of existing ones, and a slightly tweaked tracklist. This rise has also eroded what little patience he had for the rap industry machine, and on his latest project, LP!, his final under EQT and Republic, he’s practically bursting a vein at the idea of freedom: “My time in the music industry is over because I refuse to be disrespected by people who aren’t respectably in the first place,” he said in a note on the album’s Bandcamp page. JPEG’s notoriety has increased exponentially since the late 2010s, netting him guest spots on tours with Vince Staples and his first entry on the Billboard 200 with Cornballs.
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