JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - "SCARING THE HOES" Album Review
A collaborative album is meant to be what two musicians couldn’t do by themselves. In hip-hop, an album made in this manner can serve many functions. It can bridge generational gaps, or simultaneously bring two newcomers onto the scene at once. When between a rapper and producer, it can result in feeling more cohesive, or show either party vulnerably stepping out of their comfort zone. However, there are not many collaborative albums that accomplish nearly all of these objectives, let alone one that’s between unrivaled rap veteran Danny Brown and star-bound rapper/producer JPEGMAFIA.
Even before Peggy produced Danny’s song “3 Tearz”, a collaboration between the two of them made so much sense. Both are often categorized as experimental due to their unorthodox styles of production and rapping. They both embrace the weirdness of noise, put their vocal cords on the line for some unforgettable performances, and have a deep love for sampling even though copyright law has made it difficult for them to do so. Danny spent a majority of his budget for 2016’s Atrocity Exhibition on sample clearances, and Peggy had two versions of his album LP! available upon its release, one on streaming platforms and another one free for download including samples that couldn’t get cleared in time (those tracks found their way to streaming platforms eventually). Regardless, they make the music that they want to make and think about hurdles such as sample clearances later. They’re kindred spirits, and their first full collaborative album, SCARING THE HOES, is a testament to how well they work together. In addition to rapping alongside Danny, Peggy produced every song on the album, which already helps it stand out from other collaborative albums, combining two of their typical dynamics.
The name of the album revolves around the memetic idea that certain types of music aren’t understood to be crowd-pleasing, or conducive to female seduction. It could also be interpreted as Danny and Peggy’s music being considered too abstract for the mainstream— they’re above commercialization.
The album’s title track breaks the fourth wall a little too hard for my liking. If Peggy and Danny are leaning into the collective joke that their music “scares the hoes”, I would prefer to infer their understanding of that through the music, instead of having them repeatedly tell me that.
“Stop scaring the hoes / Playing that shit will have them touchin’ their toes / “We don’t wanna hear that weird shit no more, / what the fuck is that? Give me back my aux cord.””
It does make sense, however, that they do so over an almost Dadaist instrumental. A sample of continuous clapping is almost made to sound wet, and a meandering, squeaky saxophone is pestilent, like a fly buzzing around your ear occasionally being swatted away. Even when a tinny drum beat and humming bass try to bring order, it remains unrelenting. It took a while for me to like this one compared to most of the others on the album; I didn’t find it to be as grating on my second or third listen. Peggy seems to deliberately channel sounds that initially read unpleasant to the common ear, which plays into the larger implication that this album is meant to “scare” fake fans who aren’t as open-minded to Peggy and Danny’s unconventional musical choices.
The album demands and commands your attention at all times. It never feels too married to its ideas; a switch in instrumentation or random split-second sample could pop up at any time. Many tracks begin with an isolated sample, which had me anxiously awaiting how Peggy would mess with it. His choices often pleasantly surprised me. For how recognizable Kelis’ “Milkshake” is— and considering the drama that ensued when Beyoncé sampled the track— it’s shocking to hear it baked into the instrumental for “Fentanyl Tester”, a song that already moves at breakneck speed. Its blippy synths and sharp breakbeats evoke an arcade racing game, not unlike ones that Peggy has sampled in the past. “Garbage Pale Kids” turns a random Japanese commercial into chopped-up chanting and found object percussion, which somehow fits the song’s thumping sub bass and grainy guitars extremely well. The instrumental for “Steppa Pig” puts some space in between vocal chops from an NSYNC track, allowing for each hit to feel harder than the last. Instead of a maximalist barrage of sound, the dynamic is more of a push-pull feeling, and eventually the bass tugs you forward only for another blast of sampled harmonies to blow you away again.
The album gets transcendent in its second half. The samples now lean towards R&B, gospel, jazz, and anime soundtrack. The last makes up the majority of the instrumental of “Kingdom Hearts Key” where Peggy and Danny enlist one of my favorite rap prodigies redveil for a stellar additional verse. Danny comes through with some standout verses and bars, such as the comically vulgar religious metaphors on “God Loves You” or the surprisingly thought-provoking “Jack Harlow Combo Meal” where Danny provides a KFC bucket’s worth of food for thought with a single lyric:
“Man, I can’t fuck with y’all n****s, y’all let Jack Harlow sell y’all chicken.”
The album proves that Peggy and Danny can do it all. They can be aggressive, witty, poignant, effervescent, and sacrilegious. They are a force to be reckoned with when they’re together.
What makes a good artist-producer dynamic is how well they can adapt to each other’s styles. While Danny and Peggy can bring out the best in each other, many of Peggy’s beats cater to his vocal delivery so much so that Danny sometimes is a bit overshadowed. Even the mix will sometimes reflect this, like on “Lean Beef Patty”, where Danny sounds buried under the beat. Peggy also will get standalone moments where the instrumental briefly changes or develops more, but only when he’s contributing to it on vocals as well. The triumphant buildup midway through “Burfict!” sees Peggy enter as the song’s sample becomes more driving and intense, but then backs out to return to where the song was before and to allow Danny’s hook to come back after his verse.
Collaborative albums in hip-hop, a genre that fosters a heavily competitive environment between its artists and fans, often create a competitive spirit between the artists involved. I don’t think either of them outperformed the other, even though I do think that Peggy’s production on this record is better suited to his own vocal performance than Danny’s. However, I strongly believe that there wouldn’t have been a performance like this from either of them had they not decided to work together on an entire album. If you’re prepared for some intentionally challenging instrumentation and mixing choices, you’ll be treated to some of the best chemistry between two hip-hop artists in a while.
