27/02/2025

JPEGMAFIA – Powerstation: February 26, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Last in Aotearoa 2022, though a constant gardener (visitor) to Australia, since 2015, JPEGMAFIA has been releasing his vision, a synthesis of post-20th century hip hop & rap with ‘other’ influences from Kanye West to Radiohead and even 70’s UK Industrial provocateurs Throbbing Gristle. It’s his appropriation of ‘other’ that saw him title his first release, a mixtape, Communist Slow Jams, in 2015, and be described as experimental hip hop, or industrial hip hop.

No support act tonight, and I know no one, excepting my 18-year-old son and his friend, but the crowd, possibly attracted to JPEGMAFIA’s trenchant image and explicit effrontery are mostly Caucasian male, mostly looking like they dressed themselves in the dark, 18 – 30, are friendly and affable. The conundrum at the (male) toilets, excessively long lines at 8.30 pm, is discovered to be a youthful fear of using the urinals, foolishness amuses.

It’s a long wait, as everything from Metallica to MF Doom is blasted through the PA speakers, meanwhile, the youth are already crowding forward, hoping to be in the pit of action for Peggy’s arrival. The stage is adorned with JP banners and a faux DJ desk (all the beats and beds are digital), cryptic lighting and smoke machines. JPEGMAFIA keeps the anticipatory crowd waiting past the witching hour (9pm), then as lights shift and a pseudo-country-cowboy jangle fills the room, for a long, long time, which abruptly fades, a cowboy hat-adorned Peggy swaggers onstage to eruptive cheers and phone-frenzy. “My name is jpeg muthafucking mafia, I’m not much of a yapper and this song is called Jesus Forgive Me, I Am a Thot.”

JPEGMAFIA

Two weeks ago on DRIVING WITH DEBBIE, a YouTube-hosted Vlog show, being interviewed while driving the streets of London, and the subject of the Grammy Awards came up. Peggy’s attitude can be summed up in this quote, (they are) “decorative Bullshit that you can put in your bio” As he swaggers and his tones are pumped out, it is this frame of mind, and his mesmerizing stage presence that has the crowd waiting, anticipating, on bated breath, every word that he utters and shares tonight. He does yap, just about every song is Introduced, and there are narratives, Bald (from 2021’s LP!) get a lead in that teases, and pleases the crowd, while later on don’t rely on other men, the lead single from 2024’s I Lay Down My Life for You really has the bass bins working hard.

Meanwhile in the pit, the swirling multiverse, youth are trekking in and out, sweaty, euphoric looking. Hands are in the air, at Peggy’s command, and many are singing along, especially as we hit the Danny Brown segment of the show. Brown gets word up, big from JPEGMAFIA, as he teases again, about Brown’s and other non-presence, well presence in spirit perhaps. Four JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown compositions are banged out in a row, though four more are also in the set, his 2023 joint album with Brown, Scaring The Hoes certainly gets a right royal thrashing tonight.

It seems that Peggy is still happy to perform as if he is still in small bars and clubs – it’s a one-man onstage show. Even with the faux DJ desk onstage, it’s clear the beats are being managed from the mixing desk, as he cuts songs at a whim, with a wave and a voice. Not so the lighting show, as the impressive array of screens at the controller point alludes to, and delivers a frantic nexus of visuals that mask the solitary figure onstage, creating movement in smoke and mirrors.

JPEGMAFIA

So many songs, 29 tonight (see setlist below), though many are shrift or cut, still it’s a close to two-hour show, relentless. Peggy commands along the stage front without missing a beat, shuts down the lights abruptly or demands a circle pit in the darkness at a whim. JPEGULTRA! Is intro’d as making grown men emotional since 2008, New Black History bring the room back to danceable rhythms, while later on the sample-ridden Exmilitary with its White Lotus reference was a crowd pleaser, as close to a conventional song you might get at a JPEGMAFIA show. My pick of the night is the eclectically aggravating Rainbow Six, showcasing Peggy’s Trap influence, the witch-like howls are genius. And as if tonight isn’t already memorable, Tamaki Makaurau gets to have the inaugural performance of Peggy’s latest composition, a ballad, Valentine’s Day Freestyle ’25.

As finality approaches, more songs come, he counts them down “2 more to go, three more songs, the last song” At 35 he’s still able to rain down the words and the movements of his youth, he still connects in attitude (his one political quip “Fuck Trump” is ever so subtle), many miss it, unlike at other shows, Elon Musk gets off lightly. The crowd are aficionados, and loyal, the merch sells hot cake-like, and we wonder why JPEGMAFIA isn’t playing bigger venues, as this was a sold-out show tonight.