In the Randomised Record series, I take us both on an adventure to (re)discover my record collection. Fate decides: whether it be that obscure grunge album I bought recently or that emo rap record from 2017. Nothing is safe from the hands of the randomiser! I will listen to the entire album and highlight my favourite song off of it here on the blog. Do I still enjoy my records as much as when I bought ‘em? Let’s find out. Today, episode 23: ‘All My Heroes Are Cornballs’ (2019) by JPEGMAFIA.

Now, for something completely different. Here’s JPEGMAFIA! One of the few American hip-hop artists I have present in my collection, JPEGMAFIA’s album ‘All My Heroes Are Cornballs’ got introduced to me shortly after its release in 2019. At the time my partner was listening to a fair share of alternative hip-hop and since I wasn’t quite into that stuff yet, I naturally gave it a spin and took a bit of a liking to it. 6 years later and I can certainly still appreciate a bit of the experimental stuff, though I must say I need to make sure I’m paying close attention to all that’s happening on this chaotic album.

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve actively listened to this specific genre but I suppose there’s no better way of getting back into it than listening to JPEGMAFIA. The Brooklyn-born rapper is known to be on the forefront of what experimental hip-hop had to offer over the last 15 years or so and this album proves no different. It’s quite hard distinguishing songs from each other since the entire thing flows into itself as smooth as glitched-out butter. Album opener ‘Jesus Forgive Me, I Am a Thot’ is a bit of a giveaway for me (since it’s been in the Jam of Today playlist for a few years already) but after that I find myself constantly losing the plot. By the time we’ve reached side B-ender ‘BBW’ (meaning Black Brian Wilson), I have consulted the album’s tracklist, Wikipedia-page and Spotify release many times just to make sure I know what song I’m currently listening to.

Speaking of that Wikipedia, it turns out to be a lifesaver for me. Whoever edited this page (would it have been Peggy himself?!) is an absolute legend for dissecting all the songs on this record. This specific section of the page carefully explains the entire album and makes it so that I can still kind of keep track of what’s going on. Also, it tells me all about the crazy amount of references and inspirations used on this record; from an homage to Atari Teenage Riot to mentioning a Wendy’s bacon smokehouse meal (whatever that may be. Don’t blame me for being European!) and even covering TLC’s ‘No Scrubs’ on ‘BasicBitchTearGas’. It shows how crazy of an album ‘All Me Heroes Are Cornballs’ is and at this point, I’m aware that choosing one song to highlight off of this album is near impossible since none of it really makes sense without hearing the rest. Even though I was a bit afraid it would be quite a daunting ride when the randomiser spat out this record, it turns out those 45 minutes I just spent listening to this album have flown by. Perhaps because it’s been ages since I had to concentrate this hard on listening to a record. Just to make sure I stay on top on what this scene has to offer, I should probably spin this record at least once a year. Today’s been a good start.