Danny Brown & JPEGMAFIA: Scaring The Hoes track by track review
Here are our thoughts on the collaboration between Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA.
Date published: 24th Mar 2023
Here we have a collaboration between two of rap music's brightest and most eccentric characters. Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA have linked up for a new album called 'Scaring The Hoes' and the prospect of the pair matching up their unique styles is an irresistible prospect. We thought we'd look at the project on a track-by-track basis.
Lean Beef Patty
Immediately greeted by a glitchy beat, one of the first lines we get is "Fuc* Elon Musk" and the madness just spirals from there. JPEGMAFIA's ability to craft a completely bonkers rhythm is on full display, with blasts of heavy bass-packed drumming coming out of nowhere. It's a nice version of audio bombardment.
Steppe Pig
Danny Brown has one of the most recognisable voices in rap, you could instantly pick it out and this track has the oddball personality to match his own. In between all of the static, there are some really beautiful moments of reprieve that let the verses stand on their own two feet.
Scaring The Hoes
These are two styles that fit together so well that it is kind of freaky. Although it should be noted that this isn't the first time the pair have worked together, with JPEGMAFIA working on Brown's 'uknowwhatimsayin'.
Garbage Pale Kids
If anything was a certainty, it was that the pair aren't going to take things seriously and you can see that in their song titles. This is a distorted mess of a track, it's best to just let the madness wash over you and allow the duo to take you on a wild ride through some mad sonics.
Fentanyl Tester
The pure pace of their vocals makes it hard to keep up with them, as they chop and change between each other at will. It almost feels like it was crafted in some glitchy, sci-fi future. Everything is amped up to the madness, there's even a distorted sample of 'Milkshake' by Kelis.
Burfict!
Greeted by grand horns, suddenly the pair are the key entertainers in a huge arena, with the crowds all around cheering. It almost doesn't matter what the song is about, but you'll hear snippets of lyrics about sex, video gaming and money. This song sounds all-out glorious.
Shut Yo Bit*h Ass Up/Muddy Waters
A song that sounds almost like an argument between them and a sample, this is one of the most brutal songs on the album. The song completely flips halfway through as JPEGMAFIA takes over and brings more order, with an effortlessly cool flow.
Orange Juice Jones
"I can't feel my face on these narcotics" begins Brown in the latest dive into indulgence. Amongst a smooth soulful vocal, chaos takes place underneath the surface. It mixes up soul and hip-hop, as the experiments keep on coming.
Kingdom Hearts Key (feat redveil)
We get a light acoustic guitar track that is soon overridden by the deep drones of bass. It feels like this song is a tribute to bygone ras of hip-hop, where the experimentalism still exists but has been toned down a little. There are plenty of little sound effects that help elevate the track such as retro arcade game sounds.
God Loves You
The disco-soul fusion sample that greets you feels absolutely gorgeous. JPEGMAFIA gets his claws on it by adding in plenty of distortion and flipping the mix on its head whilst Brown goes off on vocal tangents, riffing off plenty of lyrics that will stick in your head.
Run The Jewels
Maybe a homage to the hip-hop legends themselves, for a short time the duo emphasise the all-out style that Run The Jewels have mastered so successfully.
Jack Harlow Combo Meal
A light piano melody is predictably twisted into an awkward, constantly shifting element in this song amongst tin-like, skittish drumming. Thrown in Brown's vocals and you get a tongue-in-cheek track that references Jack Harlow's collaboration with KFC.
HOE (Heaven on Earth)
Gushing about his girl, JPEGMAFIA describes his heaven on Earth. Amping up the bragging to the max, it's a song that emphasises attitude up to the max. One of the cleanest tracks when it comes to the instrumentals, it switches in some nice samples to keep you guessing until the end.
Where Ya Get Ya Coke From?
With an outro that explodes into life, we get a summary of all we heard so far, left-field turns at a moment's notice and the vocals of both artists taking centre stage at some point as the production does its hardest to platform both.
Overall this is pretty much exactly what you would expect from JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown coming together. It's manic in all the right ways and it sees two of rap music's most unique voices at the moment collide and feed off of each other's energy. It's not going to be to everybody's taste and if you're looking for an enriching lyrical experience then this is not the place to look. It's better to just let the chaos take you where it wants to take you.
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