Scaring The Hoes sees rappers JPEGmafia and Danny Brown celebrating their mutual weirdness. If you want to get kicked out of a house party for ‘scaring the hoes’, play this album (although I can think of much worse examples if you really want to cause utter chaos. Imagine putting Trout Mask Replica on the aux. Or maybe some Merzbow? That’s how you scare the hoes.)
‘Play something for the bitches/ how the fuck you s’posed
to make money off this shit’ raps Peggy on the title track of this album. This
is the criticism many normies throw at experimental artists like JPEGmafia and
Danny Brown. The irony is of course that
despite Peggy’s unhinged noisy production and Danny’s deranged squawking
delivery, both artists have over 2 million monthly Spotify listeners. They’ve amassed an
admirable fanbase by deliberately not trying to fit in, and this collaborative
album is an exciting celebration of this. You don’t have to Drake it to make
it.
Peggy produces all the beats on Scaring the Hoes, and
in usual Peggy fashion, each beat is completely bonkers. There are samples from
old Japanese adverts and 80s gospel songs and even Kelis’s ‘Milkshake’. Peggy
throws each sample into his cauldron and then mixes the remnants with synth
bass riffs, roughly recorded clap sounds
and whatever else he can get his hands on. Peggy’s bars meanwhile are comical
and confrontational, attacking everyone from Hulk Hogan for being a
racist to Shia LeBouef for being a woman-beater. He even lashes out at Jack Harlow for his sponsor partnership with KFC (the track title ‘Jack Harlow Combo Meal’ is also hilarious).
Danny is meanwhile in full squawk mode. His bars are equally
comical and confrontational, dropping an equal amount of wild references from
Canibus’s suspect anilingus lyric to Slick Rick’s eyepatch. He doesn’t get
quite as much mic time as Peggy and there are moments where his voice feels a little
too buried in the mix. However, when he is present and audible, he’s the
perfect tag team partner for Peggy.
I’m not sure if these guys are planning to become the next
Run the Jewels (who also get a reference on this album) or if this is a one-off
collaboration. Redveil, who is the only guest on this album, has already since
dropped another collaborative track with fellow Maryland rapper Peggy, which
could suggest Peggy already has plans of divorcing Danny and hooking up with
Redveil. But if Peggy does decide to stick it out with Danny
for another album (which I'm hoping will be the case), we could be in for some fun future albums. Were Danny to be given more prominence, they could be one of hip hop's greatest double acts. Their music is very experimental and it's definitely an acquired taste, but personally I’ll take it any day over a Jack Harlow Combo Meal.
★★★★☆
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