Based in Los Angeles, California producer and rapper JPEGMAFIA (aka Peggy) first made noise with his 2015 mixtape, Communist Slow Jams. His music is as attention-grabbing as that tape’s title, which was followed by Darkskin Manson (2015) and Black Ben Carson (2016).  A former Air Force member who did a tour of Iraq, JPEG’ has been making explosive, amped-up and oftentimes politically driven music for years. Some of his earlier releases were inspired by the death of Freddie Gray in police custody (Peggy lived in Baltimore, Maryland for several years). In early 2018, he dropped the aptly titled Veteran, which is tinged with the influence of Ice Cube. With song titles like “I Cannot F*cking Wait Until Morrissey Dies,” “Libtard Anthem,” “Whole Foods” and “Macaulay Culkin,” the project is as humorous as it is volatile.

For his latest, JPEGMAFIA teamed up with producer Kenny Beats, a Connecticut native whose work has laced Freddie Gibbs and Vince Staples, among many others, including Peggy. On “Puff Daddy,”  the two collaborate on a frenzied track that isn’t trying to be pretty. As Peggy raps, “This sh*t for the scum.” In the song, he shouts out Brownsville KA and Rick Rubin, a reminder that his brand of experimental, trap-inspired Rap music is as rooted in Hip-Hop as any other.

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JPEGMAFIA’s propensity for the outrageous is on full display in the music video for “Puff Daddy,” which was directed by Maxwell Nalevansky, whose past work is primarily in advertisements for various brands. It’s in the video that the song’s title begins to come into play, with the opening shot set in a fictional diner called “Diddy’s.” Kenny Beats serves Peggy a short stack of pancakes laced with a dubious green liquid, and it all goes bananas after that. Hallucinations begin and he loses control of his body before ending up in a stretcher, which doesn’t take him to an emergency room but a house. It’s a party from the mind’s nether-regions featuring guests in powdered wigs, a child chugging milk, a naked woman covered in insects, and a cameo from Open Mike Eagle.

JPEGMAFIA is currently on tour with Vince Staples and will appear at Coachella on April 12 and 19.

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Press photo provided by Biz 3.

#BonusBeat: Check out JPEGMAFIA’s video for “1539 N. Calvert,” which showcases a similar artistic approach as “Puff Daddy.”