USA - 2023
Experimental Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop, Industrial Hip Hop
It’s all about the style. JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown, two of the most important hip hop artists of the underground scene working nowadays, two artists with a unique signature sound, contributing to push further the limits of hip hop as a sound and as a culture. And, drenched in the digital age, this insane collaboration keeps one feet in the past. In order to challenge his talent as a producer, JPEG only used the sampler machine SP-404 to make all the tracks. And on the cover, a reference to the 1973 Blaxploitation film Sweet Jesus Preacher, directed by Henning Schellerup, where a Black hitman is undercover as a Baptist preacher to take over local rackets. Up front, even if what’s about to unfurl sounds like a spaceship crashing into a power station, this « practice session », as Peggy calls it, is putting Black power legacy on its shoulders and bringing it into a crazy new age. « Check », « Style », « Damn Peggy », « You think you know me », Danny Brown’s famous ad-libs and JPEGMAFIA’s unmissable production tags are all over the album. We’re deep inside their territory and that’s the first truly impressive thing about SCARING THE HOES. With two artists both having such a distinctive style, their ability to adapt is so great that neither one surpasses the other. And now they are moving forward side by side in a feverish mayhem shaped like a glorious show off.
As usual, everyone is targeted by the duo. From modern rappers to mainstream artists and politicians, both rightwing and leftwing, there’s not a single part of society that can hide from the brutal and satirical bars of the « supervillains ». « First off, fuck Elon Musk / Eight dollars too much, bitch, that’s expensive » is the opening line for a reason. By comparing himself to racist people (a common habit) whether it’s Kyle Rittenhouse, Hulk Hogan, John Schnatter or Donald Trump (on Lean Beef Patty, Burfict! and others) JPEGMAFIA is pushing the subversion even further by absorbing the names of White supremacists. Just like the film the album is paying tribute to, JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown are here to settle things their own way. For years, experimental music – hip hop music especially – has been labelled by men as « hoe scaring music » over the internet. And as JPEG once twitted it, « people who say shit like « u scaring the hoes » don’t actually have sex & pretend to be black online ». On their quest to make fun of « incels » and get rid of that misogynistic tag, the duo take down everything on their way with a prodigiously rich colour palette, both regarding the production and the lyrics.
But despite how boundary pushing this record is, with the horny gospel-heavy God Loves You, the jazzy Jack Harlow Combo Meal and the Japanese commercials sampled on Garbage Pale Kids, both rappers remain in a well-known hip hop territory. Whether it’s JPEG or Danny, both of them deliver some of their best lines when it comes to bragging. JPEGMAFIA has « Niggas want action, I’m not actin’ / Put you on the screen like I’m Christopher Nol’ » in Jack Harlow Combo Meal and Danny Brown « I don’t rap circles ‘round niggas, I do figure eights / Rent free in nigga’s heads, should do real estate » for in Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up. But even then, what makes the album even better is how both rappers allow themselves to share some quick moments of vulnerability. In their always changing flows, you can’t blink if you don’t wanna miss lines like Peggy’s « When I stalk your page and I see you livin’ life respectfully / And I tell myself « You didn’t know her worth », and I draft apologies » in Steppa Pig and Danny’s « Fell on my knees when I caught a felony / Tell me who there for me / Think I need therapy, sent God a text but his message turn green » on HOE (Heaven On Earth).
To say that SCARING THE HOES, beyond its highly satirical tone, remains an album centered around technique sounds rather appropriate. Because even if it’s possible to spot some heartfelt lines like the ones stated above, the entire exercise has more to do with a power assertion than an open-hearted lecture. However, when Danny Brown released, at the end of the year, his long-awaited new album Quaranta in which he loses his famous mad voice for a bare expression, it seems like we’ve never been closer to his inner life. « This rap shit done saved my life / And fucked it up at the same time / That pain in my heart, I can’t hide / A lot of trauma inside » is the opening line. Another kind of catharsis, don’t turn around, don’t elevate, watch me look inside. In a way, Quaranta is the opposite of SCARING THE HOES, an album more directed towards the outside, looking for new horizons. These are the two sides of the same hip hop coin. If we’re still waiting for JPEGMAFIA’s next album, this is for Danny Brown the occasion to showcase his unlimited talent in two very different exercises that both nourish each other. Outward power on the first side, inward power on the second. And as we’re looking at SCARING THE HOES’s place in both artists discography, it’s probably the moment when JPEG and Danny sounds the most liberated. And for that, we’re riding with them.
As usual, everyone is targeted by the duo. From modern rappers to mainstream artists and politicians, both rightwing and leftwing, there’s not a single part of society that can hide from the brutal and satirical bars of the « supervillains ». « First off, fuck Elon Musk / Eight dollars too much, bitch, that’s expensive » is the opening line for a reason. By comparing himself to racist people (a common habit) whether it’s Kyle Rittenhouse, Hulk Hogan, John Schnatter or Donald Trump (on Lean Beef Patty, Burfict! and others) JPEGMAFIA is pushing the subversion even further by absorbing the names of White supremacists. Just like the film the album is paying tribute to, JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown are here to settle things their own way. For years, experimental music – hip hop music especially – has been labelled by men as « hoe scaring music » over the internet. And as JPEG once twitted it, « people who say shit like « u scaring the hoes » don’t actually have sex & pretend to be black online ». On their quest to make fun of « incels » and get rid of that misogynistic tag, the duo take down everything on their way with a prodigiously rich colour palette, both regarding the production and the lyrics.
But despite how boundary pushing this record is, with the horny gospel-heavy God Loves You, the jazzy Jack Harlow Combo Meal and the Japanese commercials sampled on Garbage Pale Kids, both rappers remain in a well-known hip hop territory. Whether it’s JPEG or Danny, both of them deliver some of their best lines when it comes to bragging. JPEGMAFIA has « Niggas want action, I’m not actin’ / Put you on the screen like I’m Christopher Nol’ » in Jack Harlow Combo Meal and Danny Brown « I don’t rap circles ‘round niggas, I do figure eights / Rent free in nigga’s heads, should do real estate » for in Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up. But even then, what makes the album even better is how both rappers allow themselves to share some quick moments of vulnerability. In their always changing flows, you can’t blink if you don’t wanna miss lines like Peggy’s « When I stalk your page and I see you livin’ life respectfully / And I tell myself « You didn’t know her worth », and I draft apologies » in Steppa Pig and Danny’s « Fell on my knees when I caught a felony / Tell me who there for me / Think I need therapy, sent God a text but his message turn green » on HOE (Heaven On Earth).
To say that SCARING THE HOES, beyond its highly satirical tone, remains an album centered around technique sounds rather appropriate. Because even if it’s possible to spot some heartfelt lines like the ones stated above, the entire exercise has more to do with a power assertion than an open-hearted lecture. However, when Danny Brown released, at the end of the year, his long-awaited new album Quaranta in which he loses his famous mad voice for a bare expression, it seems like we’ve never been closer to his inner life. « This rap shit done saved my life / And fucked it up at the same time / That pain in my heart, I can’t hide / A lot of trauma inside » is the opening line. Another kind of catharsis, don’t turn around, don’t elevate, watch me look inside. In a way, Quaranta is the opposite of SCARING THE HOES, an album more directed towards the outside, looking for new horizons. These are the two sides of the same hip hop coin. If we’re still waiting for JPEGMAFIA’s next album, this is for Danny Brown the occasion to showcase his unlimited talent in two very different exercises that both nourish each other. Outward power on the first side, inward power on the second. And as we’re looking at SCARING THE HOES’s place in both artists discography, it’s probably the moment when JPEG and Danny sounds the most liberated. And for that, we’re riding with them.