Jpegmafia sonically delves into the darkest corners of the web and trades incendiary barbs with the alt-right on veteran
Veteran takes on the cynical cyberworlds that exist in underground forums and toxic Facebook ‘shitposting’ groups. ‘Shitposting’, or trolling, played a notable role in recently cataclysmic election of Donald Trump. 4chan forums such as /pol/ (politically incorrect) exacerbated his harsh rhetoric by antagonising people online, sharing racially provocative memes and copypastas. These sinister microcosms share a notably nihilistic worldview, that springs from an underlying sense of loneliness, confined to a virtual reality whilst disconnected from actual reality, and of disillusionment with our times. It’s easy to watch the world burn behind a screen.
Jpegmafia, however, seeks to hijack this both lyrically and musically, reclaiming it from the basement-dwellers. He does this by being just as provocative as them. Track titles such as ‘I Cannot Fucking Wait Until Morrissey Dies’ and ‘Rock N Roll Is Dead’ use shock tactics as a weapon, much like old-school hip-hop and punk did in their heyday. Political jabs are executed with unrelenting malice. One of the most savage verses come in the form of this excellent sequence in ‘Baby I’m Bleeding’:
"Now I'm at the White House, looking for your President
Hop out the van pointing guns at your residence
Ooh, I'm up in Queens now, showing y'all a body
Hoping that you pussy ass crackers try and find me
Chains on my body, looking like a rapper
Acting like a slave when I’m gunning for my masters, nigga"
The lo-fi, glitchy production is another aspect to be in awe of. It harkens back to the early days of 240p YouTube videos, yet is so intricate and detailed – case in point: ‘DD Form 214’, where that hazy digital compression creates an eerie dissonance, as he chronicles the misery of military life. Samples used in the likes of ‘Real Nega’ and ‘Rainbow Six’ maintain this oppressive atmosphere with bodily sounds of croaking, wailing, and crying. Not only is the production a creative victory, but an aesthetic one too. The abstract samples, the digitally flawed recording quality, even his name, all reconstruct the murky realm of the dark side of the web.
He also utilises appropriation similar to how users engage with illegal torrenting, stealing selected bits and pieces they like. Peggy replicates this, pirating current mainstream rappers flows and cadences. Whether it is Lil Uzi Vert’s nasal autotune (‘I Can’t Wait…’), Drake’s sing-rap hybrid (‘Williamsburg’), XXXTentacion’s arresting scream (‘Curb Stomp’), or Migos’ ad-lib backed triplet flow (‘Panic Emoji’), no-one is off limits to have their style jacked. He freely jumps from style to style like flitting from tab to tab, he doesn’t stick with one for so long to the point of becoming unoriginal. It is more borrowing from admired contemporaries; even giving Lil Peep and Lil B a shout out.
Satirism is often the tone employed throughout the album; producer tags found on mixtape sites such as DatPiff are exaggeratedly repeated over in several tracks. By the time you finish the album, “you think you know me” and “damn Peggy” will be firmly lodged in your head. ‘Thug Tears’, a trap banger with distorted textures and aided with tribal drumming, derisively lampoons the pressures of a millennial (the original title of the song). Despite the troubles that face this generation, a dangerous feeling of jaded passivity, which he depicts perfectly, encompasses the Internet. As aforementioned, being confined solely to the virtual world can be numbing.
Veteran is a highly innovative and important protest record. It resists a bleak corner of the Internet that has spilled malignant repercussions for the rest of cyberspace, and the outside world. Peggy’s time in the military and racism suffered living in Alabama, were a jarring revelation that sometimes to combat spiteful people with no shame, you sometimes have to be as shameless as them. In stealing their offensive tactics, style, and attitude, it removes their sting.
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