Photo credit Levi Manchak, via Wikimedia Commons
If JPEGMAFIA has been anything in this decade, it’s consistent. The critically acclaimed rapper and producer, Benington Hendricks (aka JPEGMAFIA) recently released this past August his third full length LP of the 2020s: I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, a record as full of frenetic movement as his previous releases. Hendricks’s energetic rapping, backed by heavy guitar beats, can leave a listener shocked – but in all the right ways. After snagging my ticket for his Columbus tour date, I was rapt with anticipation.
Having never been to a concert before, I was very excited to be seeing JPEGMAFIA for my first time. After doing some research, I learned that his concerts had a rather crazy atmosphere – and apparently an unpleasant odor. For my part, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary with the smell. It was what I would have expected from a venue like the Newport Music Hall.
All things considered, I was both extremely excited, and a little bit nervous for this show. As Friday approached I listened to a lot of the opener Jane Remover’s music. I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Remover’s studio album Frailty, but I think that her most recent singles are her best songs yet. I went in with high hopes.
The day of the concert, I waited patiently for the walk to head to the venue. I met up with my friends and got in line an hour before the doors opened. I could feel the excitement in the air, which seemed to go down the entirety of High Street. As we finally entered, skipping a very crowded merch line, we found ourselves in the center of the crowd.
Jane Remover came out after about an hour and did an amazing job with her set, the highlights of which included her killer vocals and spectacular screaming. I could feel my body vibrating from the ultra-heavy bass, a fantastic experience for someone who had never been to a concert before. Jane Remover played a lot of her newer music, and topped off her set by playing their newest song, “Magic I Want U”. It was my favorite part of her whole performance, and it energized the crowd, preparing them for the main event: JPEG’s set.
After what felt like hours of intermission, the lights finally dimmed and JPEGMAFIA came onto the stage. He opened his set with “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot” off his acclaimed album All My Heroes Are Cornballs. Its infectious hook had the entire crowd singing along. Soon after this, he played “Hazard Duty Pay”, one of his most popular songs and my personal favorite of his. The insane sampling of the song set the energy level of the crowd to 100.
However, all this energy seemed to effortlessly dissipate as he then moved onto the slowest song on the set,“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen. He covered this song very early in his career, and makes a point of performing it at every concert. It was a super fun moment, as everyone in the crowd knew all the words. It was the calm before the storm, as JPEG was about to follow this interlude with a barrage of heavy rap hits.
The next hour was almost nonstop action. Mosh pits opened up and the floor went wild. The only pauses were when the crowd strained to hear him introduce the next song. After a slew of some of his most recent songs, with “I scream this in the mirror before I interact with anyone”, “Sin Miedo”, and “1539 N. Calvert” being some of my personal highlights, the concert hit halftime as he paused to toss water bottles out into the crowd. As someone who was standing towards the back, I thought there was no way I was getting a water bottle and barely even paid attention.
To my surprise, a perfect throw into the crowd from JPEGMAFIA himself found a landing spot right in the side of my head, putting me right back at attention. After this brief interlude, we continued on. He then played a few tracks off of his 2023 collab with Danny Brown, Scaring The Hoes. One of my favorite albums of 2023, it was a lot of fun hearing the title track as well as “Garbage Pail Kids”.
Around this time I, drenched in sweat and ears ringing, decided to take a little break from the moshing and watch the rest from the sidelines with my friends. Very lame of me, I know.
A major highlight for me after this point was “Baby I’m Bleeding”, accompanied with a light show. The lights shut off, and didn’t come back on until he kicked the song into action. He finished off the night playing, “either on or off the drugs” and “it’s dark and hell is hot”. The former was my favorite track on his latest release and I was seriously looking forward to hearing it live. He did an amazing job performing it, with the beat sounding just as heavenly live as it does on the studio version. I thought that those two tracks were the perfect way to finish off the concert.
Overall, JPEGMAFIA and Jane Remover made for an amazing first concert experience. If they ever come back to Columbus, I suggest you see them — even if not for the first time.
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