SCARING THE HOES - JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

are two of the most acclaimed and unique artists in the modern underground hip-hop scene. Danny broke out in the early 2010s before building up to one of the decade's most acclaimed rap albums Atrocity Exhibition in 2016. Peggy on the other hand crashed into the music world with his 2018 album Veteran which received massive acclaim for its unique compositional style and energetic performances. Now the pair are linking up for a project that has already become one of the most anticipated in all of rap this year despite just being announced a few weeks ago. 

Review by Lav:

So here we are. After years of rumors and speculation, the long-awaited Danny and Peggy collab has finally arrived and it's themed specifically around the pair leaning into what so many of their biggest fans love about them. Given how talented both artists are I was expecting nothing less than fireworks and ultimately, that's what we got.

Before I get to the elements of the record I love there's one thing I need to get out of the way first and it's something people probably won't like. While I unequivocally love Danny Brown and I've loved everything he's done for almost a decade now, I've never been anywhere near that favorable towards JPEGMAFIA. While Veteran is certainly a unique album, I thought both its follow-up projects were just decent and wasn't really into either of the EPs he released either. So as those who have been talking about this record a lot in the past week are likely aware, this is much closer to a Peggy project than a Danny project in terms of its composition, style, and even the balance of whose sonic presence takes up the most time and space. 

Songs like Lean Beef Patty, Orange Juice Jones, and the short Run The Jewels all feel like they could slip into the tracklist of Peggy's last album, but they're all also among the weakest songs here. That isn't to say that all the moments where Peggy steals the show are bad. Burfict is an absolutely wild banger that sounds just as dirty as the player it's named after. While the mixing does sometimes rob both Peggy and Danny of their intensity the song still hits incredibly hard.

Kingdom Hearts Key is the one song here that reminds me a lot of Peggy's 2019 album All My Heroes Are Cornballs with its soaring pop samples. The way the drums kick in right in time for Danny to start his verse perfectly highlights how slick his rhymes are and even redveil proves he belongs on the song with a short but exciting verse. 

While I much prefer the middle and second half of the record to the opening rn I do think that Steppa Pig and SCARING THE HOES are an excellent one-two punch. The first has a booming beat and killer flow from Danny with the all-time bar about his hater's careers being "like Whitney in the bathtub." The title track by comparison is a fucking hilarious and very self-aware reflection on the strangeness of experimental hip-hop. The song itself is so rough around the edges that it's hard to many other rappers besides these two would be willing to jump on it.

There are a lot more highlights worth diving into here starting with Garbage Pale Kids which is one of many built around absolutely killer samples. It has this cloudy nostalgic demeanor to it and both Danny and Peggy are on their absolute A-game throughout. Fentanyl Tester is the most purely up-tempo spring through the record with a jittery hard-hitting beat and fast flows to go with it. The Milkshake sample is a "so strange that is works kind of moment."

The first half of Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up / Muddy Waters features an absolutely insane verse from Danny that's a throwback in the absolute best way. Even though the muting vocal effects over Peggy's voice in the second half once again rob him of some of his energy I do still love the song. God Loves You is probably my favorite song on the entire record with this insane distorted ass beat and soaring choir samples. Danny also absolutely kills the track from the moment he takes off until the halfway point where he literally laughs himself out of the track. The great performances and amazing instruments combine for the best song this album has to offer. 

One of the hoe-scaringest songs on the record is Jack Harlow Combo Meal which is an Alchemist ass jazz rap song but shoved through an insane filter and the results are chaotic and a bit hard to digest sometimes but in a way that never failed to grab me. HOE is the peak of the many gospel-flavored samples that appear in the record's second half and the fact that Peggy spends most of his verse talking about how bad his bitch is is just a great touch. 

This album is a great example of the talents of both artists involved. While it's a bit rough around the edges, what else would you expect from an album of hoe scaring music. Even though it occasionally dips into the linear stylings of JPEGMAFIA's music that I've grown less fond of over time for the most part this record is an unpredictable jaunt through the relentless personality and ambition of two absolute superstars of underground hip-hop. Not only do they complement each other well, but they push each other's ambitions into new and thoroughly exciting places. 8/10

For more hip-hop, check out my review of Slowthai's UGLY