Hi, everyone. Dethany Luxetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review/assessment of this new director's cut edition of JPEGMAFIA's I Lay Down My Life For You.

JPEGMAFIA. Peggy. Producer, singer, rapper, songwriter, lyricist, prolific musical mind. He just dropped a brand new LP last year, was one of my favorite records of 2024. I Lay Down My Life for You. Thought very highly of the record, not only because of its consistent and impressive songwriting and production quality, but also stylistically, I thought this record was an interesting switch up for Peggy, featuring a lot of songs that had really heavy rock drums and guitars that really played into his edgy, in your face style without necessarily falling into those corny rap rock pitfalls or anything artistically or aesthetically that could be likened to some old-school new metal crap, what have you.

But yeah, a great project from Peggy overall. And as is customary in the rap sphere these days with a lot of albums, it seems we are getting a deluxe now. But of course, JPEGMAFIA is doing it in his own JPEGMAFIA way, not simply just giving us the same album over again with a record's worth of tracks added to the front or the back or anything like that. I mean, there is a bit of that going on here, but also this new director's cut version involves a total revamp of the original album's tracklist, along with an additional intro and outro, too.

On social media, he essentially came out and said that not only is this a "director's cut" of the album, but this is essentially the original version – what we heard in 2024 is essentially what he arrived to after deciding to cut out the fat and the extra stuff and really whittle the album down to its strongest and most potent moments. In this video, I want to go over whether or not that actually is the case and that plan worked and what some of these new uncovered songs bring to the table of this director's cut edition.

Now, off the bat, I'll say that all of these extra songs really change up the overall vibe of the record significantly, making I Lay Down My Life For You a much less concentrated experience. Instead, it's giving LP in more ways than one. Because if you remember, obviously, there were two versions of that album as well, an online and an offline version, which, if my memory serves me correct, was mostly the case because of logistical issues having to do with the samples and the actual content of the music and what could and couldn't be on the official streaming platform version of the album at the time.

We have two versions here, again, but obviously the intentions going into the different versions is different, but we're still getting two versions all the same. But still, with this heftier tracklist, I Lay Down My Life For You's very trim and to the point 14 song tracklist expands to 21 songs, and that's without accounting for the second disk of material that's just tagged on the very end. And yeah, once again, it is giving the chaos and the abundance of previous tracklists from projects like Veteran as well as LP.

And while obviously, as somebody who has been a fan of Peggy's work for a while, I'm not necessarily against the decision he made to pull out a lot of these songs that made it onto this Director's Cut version, because I do feel like it contributed significantly to the final version of this record, feeling like a stark contrast from much of everything Peggy has done previously. It really felt like a new era in terms of the the way he's writing his songs, the way he's producing his songs, and the way he is putting together his albums. I feel like if Peggy presented this album in the way that it currently is off the bat, the more rock and guitar-driven moments would not have been as successful in terms of driving the album's overall sound and vibe as they would have been watered down a bit with the tracks that vary away from that sound.

I don't think tracks with fantastic features from the likes of Vince Staples and Denzel Curry would have stood as tall either. While the "IS-231" intro on this director's cut is cool, I think there is most definitely merits to getting right into it with "I Scream This in the Mirror", especially considering the opening line and the really distinct ride cymbal tapping that kicks that track off. It grabs your attention off the bat, even without a lead-up or a tension builder.

Following this, though, we get another switch-up in the tracklist. That is the song "Protect the Cross", which Peggy used as a single and a teaser in the lead-up to this director's cut version. In terms of the purpose this track serves, I can see it both ways. Why it was made originally and, simultaneously, why it didn't make the final cut of the record. Because as far as the more rock-driven songs on the album, the mix isn't as heavy or bassy or gratifying as many of the other cuts here. It does feel a little redundant in that way, but simultaneously, I like the lyrics on this track quite a bit in terms of what they get across with bolstering the themes and inferences that are brought by the album cover of the project, and on top of that, of the record's themes of ideological extremity and zealotry and aggression, which I feel like we almost get the inverse of in terms of a nod towards spirituality on the additional closing track here, "Allah", on this director cut version of the album.

Shortly after this, we have another additional moment after "I'll Be Right There", "Jordan Rules". This track, too, is another moment of – it's good, but what does it add that other tracks don't already and to a more superior degree? With that being said, though, I do really like this very eerie, orchestral, plucky, melodic sample that's cycling so quickly throughout the verses on the first half of the song. Even if this one hasn't panned out as one of my favorites on the entire project, if it did make the original version, that still would be one of the most standout samples and sounds on the entire record.

We also have the track "Cult Status", which is a very interesting addition to the project because if you've listened to the very end of the song "New Black History", there is a sick beat switch at the very finish of that song. That's almost like this industrial noise, loose, wonky hip hop blend with these pitchy, distorted, feedback-esque synth skips stuttering. It's a very difficult vibe to explain, specifically sonically and rhythmically, but this very short moment does make for one of the coolest instrumental passages on the entire album. And what this track does is essentially takes that little extra beat and extends it out into an entire track, almost like a freestyle where Peggy is just spitting over this groove, over this beat, over this loop. It's great to hear Peggy rhyming on this instrumental and to hear it actually getting fully used and not simply just be an outro.

But with that being said, I could see why it wouldn't make the final cut of the album because song structure-wise, it's not nearly as built out or as methodically assembled as a lot of the other songs that made it onto the album.

I feel like if there is another defining characteristic to this record, the final version that we heard originally on streaming, that is, it's that Peggy really was more on his songwriter, song structure shit. Again, this is a sick instrumental, but with the way that it's assembled and flows in a linear way, it could almost be a song off Veteran or something like that.

"Coke or Dope?" is another surprising moment in this Directors Cut version, but I think more confirmation that Peggy ultimately made the right decisions here because this track is essentially like the latter part of "Jihad Joe", but with a different whole first half and lead up to that big booming guitar drop. And honestly, especially given some of the interesting melody lines that are worked into the instrumental on "Jihad Joe", I prefer the version that we ended up hearing first. Even if "Coke or Dope?" does have a subtler, quieter start, which makes the eventual loud, voluminous contrast later in the track that much greater.

Now, this director's cut version of the album also brings us a title track, which, it's interesting that a title track made it on the cutting room floor of a record. I mean, I'm sure it's happened before, but it's just nuts considering how much you expect that thing to be a point of thematic focus. But again, if what we're hearing is the original version of the album, I could see why this would have been left out because it doesn't necessarily contribute to the flow all that well, with it being a low-key moment. If this track did make the version that we originally heard on streaming, it would be one of at least a few that is scratching a similar itch in the second half of the album.

"Boy You Should Know!" is maybe my favorite additional cut on this director's version of the album, though. Peggy's flows are just so smooth. There's a certain accessibility to the production on this track, too, especially with those very jumpy female vocal chops that are so well-executed. The track really has a pop-centric bounce to it that you don't hear on a lot of songs from this record. I suppose as a result, that's the reason why it might not have made the cut. I feel like this could have been a song from the LP era, and it would have worked very well on that tracklist at some point. Or again, even on this album, too, in the version that we originally heard, but maybe in the first half. There's also an insane beat switch in the second half of this song, which is also why it would have, I think, been still a valid addition to the first version of the record.

Then the "Allah" outro that I was talking about earlier. It's interesting that this one did not make the version that we first heard because of how much I feel like this song adds to the spiritual inferences being made on some bars here and there, and especially with the cover. I mean, ultimately, I think Peggy did make the right decision because "I Recovered from This", I think, is the stronger emotional note to leave on, given just how vulnerable and revealing that track is lyrically.

And "Allah", while it does have some beautiful passages to it, it does come across like more of a motif, a moody pastiche of a few different things. But again, still conveying a spiritual message of sorts while also serving as one of the most chill productions Peggy has ever put together and thrown onto an album.

Then we have a border separating things into another disk here of seven additional tracks. And this is stuff that truly is extra at this point, like the initial passages of "Jihad Joe" that were added to this album later in the version that we first heard.

We have the "Don't Rely on Other Men" single, which I wasn't really crazy about on first listen. I think getting it in this version here further confirms how much more underwhelming this iteration of the track is when compared to the grandiose string-kissed outro we actually ended up getting on the final album version.

"Take An" is a very short, but I guess, okay, breakbeat-based instrumental with some Biggie Smalls drops, it sounds like.

We have the song "Hate", which has a rough around the edges feature on it and is like this aggro piece of super distorted trap music. It's like if Peggy were trying to make a rage track or something.

The "Bloodline Freestyle (2022 demo)" is definitely one of the better highlights on the second disk, but this is another moment that feels like it could have potentially landed on any number of previous Peggy projects. I think he just did a good job, generally speaking, of making this album feel like its own separate experience from anything he's done previously.

Meanwhile, the first two tracks that kick off this second disk are handily the most excellent it has to offer. "Come & Get Me" brings those heavy guitars in the first leg and eventually stuns with these really smooth melodic vocal lines and some incredible strings. It's such a dynamic and multifaceted track, and I genuinely think this song could have been a replacement for a couple of the more redundant cuts on the version that made it on a streaming services first.

"What the Hell Hip-Hop Hell is This?", though, is another banger for sure. But maybe a track that makes more sense if you've been listening to JPEGMAFIA's music for a while because it feels like almost a callback of sorts to a track like "What Rappin' is This"? Which for Peggy at the time when that song came out, that was almost like a meta-commentary on his own sound and his own style and how his delivery and his music almost stands out as weird or too weird within the rap sphere. This track over here with its title asks a similar question. But lyrically, Peggy is spending more of his time critiquing other artists out there that he feels are making far more mediocre music than him.

That, in a nutshell, is the director's cut version of this album. I'm glad this director's cut version of the album exists, and I'm happy to have heard it. There are at least several tracks on it I will most definitely be coming back to. But for me personally, I think experiencing this just further solidifies my view on the first version of the record and what Peggy tried to do, intended to do with that version, which is why I'm feeling a strong great job on this director's edition of I Lay Down My Life For You.

Anthony Fantano, JPEG Mafia, forever.