All My Heroes Are Cornballs CD

JPEGMAFIA’s trademark producer tag, “You think you know me”, is a direct challenge to the listener: try to pin me down, I dare you.

JPEGMAFIA furthers and proves this statement on his 3rd official release; "All My Heroes are Cornballs". This album came one year after his album that skyrocketed him to the fame he has now, Veteran. Veteran is known for its off-kilter, harsh, and weird instrumentals. In this LP JPEGMAFIA brings this trademarked sound into "All my heroes are Cornballs", but takes a left turn from his older work with a more brighter, glitchy, and meta spin. Oh, and a lot more singing too.

The internet has always been a staple of JPEGMAFIA'S career, even his name has to do with an internet attachment. But this album takes it to another level, a majority of the songs having very ironic internet slang, sounding like your reading teenagers texts and tiktok comment sections, such as Jesus forgive me I'm a thot, Beta Male Strategies, Grimy Waifu, and Thot Tactics. Even the album name, "All my heroes are Cornballs" has a very unformal sounding name. The internet has a greater influence and vibe on this album than his others. This album sounds like your rapidly browsing through JPEGMAFIA'S computer, rushing through his unorganized sound files on FL studio.

This album rapidly shifts from guitar riffs, to weird samples, him rapping boisterously, then suddenly him singing drenched in autotune. Parts of it almost sound, unfinished, but purposely. Such as the mic peaking at points, his voice being clipped off, his mic needlessly shifting from loud to quiet, and mixing the bass as the forefront of the drums. But the thing that brings this album from a great album to a masterpiece, is how well this chaos flows so well. It never is jarring, yet it keeps you guessing on whats to come.

There are two sides of this album, the trademark grinding, and hard hitting JPEGMAFIA we know and love, and a newer side of JPEGMAFIA, a softer and more pop-ish sound, with some moments of the album sounding like more of his older work under Devond Hendryx. JPEGMAFIA expertly weaves these sounds together, with probably the best example being Kenan Vs. Kel. The first half of the song is mellow, and clicky. Where It than transitions to something straight out of a Death Grips project (I hate how I said this, because comparing the two of them is stupid and racist). JPEGMAFIA screams the lyrics, and it sounds like it was taken straight from Black Ben Carson.

Another example of this all is the intro track, Jesus forgive me I'm a thot. It weaves a sharp and noisy crowd yelling and screaming, with this beautiful piano and his singing. But it doesn't feel like a gimmick, its beautiful and terrifying at the same time. You can see more of this in PTSD, JPEGMAFIA nimbly raps over this dull beat. Where the instrumental keeps on rising, and it reaches its peak where you know its about to get to the chorus, until you get a jarring twang sound and then goes back to the beat and Peggy keeps his flow perfectly not tripping at all. Its edging you, and teasing you until the chorus finally comes, and its beautiful. Which transitions me into the thing I love this album for.

There are some points in this album that are just so amazing and beautiful. If you would have only listened to his albums veteran and Black Ben Carson, you would never have guessed that this dude would be singing on his next album. Ironically on "Drake Era" from his debut, he makes fun of rappers who sing on there albums. Songs like, Free the Frail, All my heroes are Cornballs, and thot tactics showcase some of his best singing.

But don't get me wrong, his rapping on this is superb. I feel like people overlook JPEGMAFIA'S voice and rapping ability. People are so focused on his production, that they forget that his rapping is just as important as his production. The different voices, inflections, and tones he uses is something I almost never hear in rap. The way he yells, and raps over these complex and ever-changing beats is crazy, I doubt any other rapper can do it besides him.

People criticize this album for being a little to meta, cringey, and un-serious for his standards. But I disagree, I find it charismatic, and fun. This is one of the best rap albums of all time.

From the DC Universe to the internet writ large, JPEGMAFIA’s heroes span genres and mediums. The producer and rapper’s pantheon is expansive and colorful, a bustling splash page of influences and pop culture totems. While JPEG has never downplayed the prominent roles that anime, video games, and wrestling play in his music, the adrenalized politics of his past projects sometimes obscured that scope. Listening to a song like “I Just Killed a Cop Now I’m Horny,” for instance, the morose Ai Aso sample always felt overshadowed by the flamboyant title and JPEG’s anti-cop lyrics. All My Heroes Are Cornballs adjusts that imbalance by laying bare the sprawling collage in his brain and showcasing how seamlessly it all fits together. The record feels like a public access show on an interdimensional cable channel: unhinged and trippy, but still deeply earnest.

All My Heroes is a significant departure from his earlier work. But for as dense as it sounds, there’s a quiet accessibility to how JPEG performs and structures these songs. He adopts gendered terms like thot, slut, and girl, leaning into Peggy, his feminine nickname, and stages a few songs from the perspective of a woman. It’s unclear what they might signify about his own identity, but they further the idea that his fearlessness is his superpower. As a producer, he builds his hyper-syncretic songs around concord rather than contrast. The distorted guitar riff on “Rap Grow Old and Die x No Child Left Behind” acts as a springboard for the vocals and other instruments, converting all the friction into motion. The crackle of a recorded fire on “DOTS FREESTYLE REMIX” fills the spaces between JPEG’s boasts and the cutesy synth tune. He’s adept at making disparate sounds and images cohere without sacrificing texture or invoking an exaggerated sense of audacity. In a year full of nods to diaspora and lineage, his productions are a reminder that even randomness can be personal.

Sounds and sequences that would have been codas or flourishes in his past music are allowed to fully blossom, even in passing. “Kenan Vs. Kel” shuffles through keyboard melodies before settling on a riff that morphs into a dusty beat. Then, halfway through, a crunchy power chord shows up and is stretched like sheet metal as it’s hammered with percussion. JPEG raps on both parts, and as busy as that sounds, the shifts are effortless, like swiping between smartphone apps. “Grimy Waifu,” a gun ode with a gorgeous downtempo backbeat, folds in flute spirals and acoustic guitar riffs as JPEG sings in AutoTune of his weapon’s commitment to him. It’s as ridiculous as it is dazzling.

Amid all the chaos, his rapping remains his greatest tool. JPEG is an impish writer and an athletic vocalist. He can slither in and out of rhythms and hopscotch through the densest arrangements without losing momentum. Here, he raps in compact spurts, volleys, and streams, his words slurred, stretched, and compressed as he channels his heroes and roasts his enemies. His references are personal and evocative. “BBW” is named after the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson (JPEG claims to be his black counterpart). On “Post Verified Lifestyle,” he likens himself to DOOM, Beanie Sigel, the Beatles, and 98 Degrees. The first half of “Rap Grow Old and Die x No Child Left Behind” uses Bobby Brown and Michael Jackson to skewer music industry whitewashing in the chorus, and ends its second verse with a shout out to Tom Hardy’s Bane.

What’s striking about all these name drops is their constant sense of dimension. JPEG threatening to turn former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon into Steve Hawking on “PRONE!” is incredibly brash and aggro and ableist, yes, but it’s also a sincere expression of rage against a propagator of white nationalism. Similarly, JPEG’s reference to The Dark Knight Rises alludes to the album’s title while conveying his genuine belief in armed revolt against cops. As nerdy and gushing as this album is, it’s no less unabashed about JPEG’s political stances. He may want to be your girl (“Thot Tactics”), but he’s still blasting the alt-right (“Beta Male Strategies”) and incensed by police brutality (“PTSD”). There’s no hierarchy to his touchstones or his tactics; his idols coexist with his ideals.

Given the record’s wild song titles and manic energy, it’s tempting to attribute that equivalency to the internet, but JPEG’s fluency feels more tied to his life experiences than his web history. He’s lived across the world and country as an airman, artist, and black man (“I been everywhere around the world and nobody likes niggas,” he once observed). He grew up listening to reggae singer Michael Prophet (“Free the Frail”) and has recorded sincere covers of Carly Rae Jepsen and now TLC (a dissonant cut of “No Scrubs” appears as “BasicBitchTearGas”). “Don’t rely on the strength of my image,” he sings on “Free the Frail.” It feels like a public warning as well as a personal mantra.

In balancing the stridence of his politics with the aesthetic overload of his many influences, All My Heroes reintroduces JPEGMAFIA as an imagineer as well as a provocateur. He remains a hellraiser, but also comes across as bubbly and inventive, technicolor and cyberpunk—real anime supervillain shit. In a scattered .txt file titled “thoughts” included with his previous album Veteran, he wrote, “U can never make a type beat for me I’m to [sic] varied.” Back then, the statement rang true mostly for his boisterous, glitchy beat-making. All My Heroes shows that it applies to his full skill set. Get this man a shield.

Why is it called all my heroes are cornballs?

How many songs did JPEGMAFIA make for all my heroes are cornballs?

What is JPEGMAFIA wearing on the All My Heroes Are Cornballs cover?

Is JPEGMAFIA self produced?