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Following his latest studio album, JPEGMAFIA’s (commonly referred to as Peggy) I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU (DIRECTORS CUT), released on February 3, 2025, providing a reimagined version of his critically acclaimed album of the same name. Circumventing typical deluxe album protocol, Peggy instead integrates many of the 13 new tracks into the album’s original track list, stating in the notes of the album’s Bandcamp release, “side a is my original vision for the album, side b are bonus tracks”. Peggy’s additions feature some of the album’s best production, as the project is almost entirely self-produced, and gives the project unneeded but much-appreciated juice from its original version.
I remember vividly in February of 2024 being at an Enjoy concert in San Antonio when Peggy first teased the snippet for side a’s new outro, “ALLAH”. In between the opener and headliner, I found myself listening to the 30ish seconds over and over again, tilting my phone screen up to give the impression I was listening to an important voicemail. “ALLAH” features what is probably the best instrumental of the year (well, month give-or-take), the first half featuring Peggy rapping about religious hypocrisy as well as his own inner turmoil regarding religion, “On my knees when I pray, otherwise it don’t count in my conscious, Put my hands to the sky, I can’t see him, but you still my accomplice”. The second half of the song takes on a whole different form, sampling Lil Durk’s 2023 song “Pelle Coat”. JPEG turns the lines sampled, “I get on my knees, I pray to Allah, forgive me for the s**t that I did, let me get closer to my kids” into an ethereal glitch pop ballad, punctuated by an aggressive kick-pattern that pierces the soul. The track serves as a perfect outro for the album’s original vision, its omission from the original release remains puzzling.
The other a-side track that stands out is the newly added title track, “i lay down my life for you (feat. Buzzy Lee)”. The track’s second half has a beautifully sung verse from frequent collaborator Buzzy Lee, an independent musician and the daughter of filmmaker Steven Spielberg. The tracks’ complete lack of drums and stripped back instrumental stand out amongst much of the album’s abrasiveness. Lee’s verse plays as the most vulnerable moment from the newly released tracks, “I went over the same, Writings on the tape, I got over the game, … Taut on the hillside, Take me to a real life”.
Other standouts from the album’s revamped a-side include “Jordan Rules”, “CULT STATUS”, and “COKE OR DOPE?”, three songs with more industrial hip-hop sounds, muddy in nature providing a grime/grunginess intrinsic to much of Peggy’s production. “Boy You Should Know” features probably the most fun beat of the project, built around a sample of Ciara’s 2013 track “Body Party” with a Jersey Club drum pattern before transitioning into a more industrial beat. The album’s b-side is more of what one would expect from a typical deluxe release, the songs lacking much overall cohesion but with standouts, nonetheless, including tracks like “What the hip hop hell is this?” and “Bloodline Freestyle (2022 Demo)”.
On I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU (DIRECTORS CUT), JPEGMAFIA once again displays his prowess as both an artist and as a producer. The new collection of tracks are chock-full of innovative production, and Peggy’s trademark lyrical and instrumental abrasiveness, while occasionally pulling back the curtain and highlighting new levels of insight and vulnerability. As a day after the release of the deluxe Peggy tweeted “I was opposed to being more personal for so long in my career because of certain people among my fanbase who don’t take others peoples pain seriously until THEY are in pain.” It will be very interesting to see where he goes from here, as he has made it clear once again with this Director’s Cut that he is one of the most original and talented musicians working today, a sentiment he is not shy to share. As Peggy raps on “COKE OR DOPE?”, “You’re not even worth a mention, to anybody worth a mention. There’s levels.”
