Ace

JPEGMAFIA makes music that sounds assembled under pressure from sources that didn't expect to be used — samples chopped to their most disorienting edges, drums arriving out of sequence, bass that destabilizes rather than grounds. "Ace" operates in this mode, production by Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks exhibiting his characteristic refusal of compositional comfort: there is no moment to settle into, no groove that lasts long enough to become familiar before it mutates into something else. His vocal delivery moves between boast and absurdism, the lyrics functioning as both demonstration of technical skill and ongoing critique of the contexts that produce that skill — the rap game, the critical apparatus, the audience's expectations of what they are consuming. The cultural context is an artist who studied sonic violence and deployed it with specific political intention, his Baltimore and Los Angeles influences audible in the aggression while his critical sensibility complicates any straightforward reading of that aggression. "Ace" is the sound of someone playing a game while explaining that games are constructed and the rules were written by someone else. Best in headphones on a commute long enough to let the disorientation build into something that begins to feel like clarity.