{"id":868,"date":"2024-10-07T20:36:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T20:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/?p=868"},"modified":"2024-10-08T16:09:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T16:09:08","slug":"jpegmafia-all-my-heroes-are-fascists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/10\/07\/jpegmafia-all-my-heroes-are-fascists\/","title":{"rendered":"JPEGMAFIA: Are All My Heroes Cornballs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s disappointing when a favorite artist of yours releases new music and you can clearly see they\u2019ve gone downhill. It’s even more disappointing when they release new music and it sounds so good<\/em>, but their marketing proves the artist as a person <\/em>has gone downhill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was introduced to JPEGMAFIA around 2021 by my late friend, so \u201cHAZARD DUTY PAY!\u201d will always hold a special place in my heart. Although I\u2019ve never listened to much rap\u2013and the experimental bent of his music was anything but accessible\u2013it immediately became a staple in my rotation. In 2022, he was my top artist on Spotify Wrapped, and I saw him live for the first time in what remains one of my favorite concerts of all time. Let me be clear: seeing him live again in Columbus in 2024 was still so much fun. However, \u201cseparating the art from the artist\u201d is sometimes difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so many artists and celebrities being exposed and canceled, I\u2019m always praying that my favorites are actually good people. JPEG’s complicated situation refuses to offer any easy answers. Demonstrated by his 2019 album title, he has been anti-celebrity-idolatry for years, but has also contradicted himself (and then un-contradicted??). He has stated that Kanye West has been a huge inspiration to him in his career, but in recent years Kanye has become, to put it lightly, a morally questionable public figure. Seemingly undeterred, in January 2024, Peggy announced his involvement in Kanye\u2019s newest album. I, of course, dramatically fell to my knees at this news, accepting that one of my favorite artists is, in fact, an asshole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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People always say to put things in perspective. If I was a musician and had an opportunity to work with a long-time role model, I\u2019d be crazy not to. In JPEG\u2019s most recent album, he somewhat acknowledges this situation. In \u201ci scream this in the mirror before i interact with anyone,\u201d he raps \u201cI’ma take off even if I land wrong \/ And take everything I can get my hands on.\u201d This by itself is valid, and it\u2019s clear he\u2019s just doing what is best for his career. However, it seems like he did \u201cland wrong\u201d with the way he marketed this latest tour. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Marketing from JPEGMAFIA’s Lay Down My Life Tour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For some reason, when JPEG and his team were cooking in the graphic design studio, they decided to take direct inspiration from an infamous piece<\/a> of fascist propaganda. Everybody\u2019s so creative! I had been back and forth with my feelings over him with all the discourse online, but this boggles the mind. It\u2019s one thing to be known as an experimental, ironic online agitator, but I find it hard to see any irony in collaborating with a Hitler-admiring-Holocaust-denier and then using fascist motifs in advertising a tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depsite everything, few artists can claim to be as unique as JPEGMAFIA. His intense irony and distinctive online persona have brought him into turbulent times recently, depending on how you look at it\u2013and quite frankly, how much you even care. Some celebrities\u2013music artists specifically\u2013love being contrary just to be contrary and love being ironic for the sake of being ironic. The bottom line is this: do not hold any celebrity in too excessive esteem and always be aware of how you are perceiving information. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s disappointing when a favorite artist of yours releases new music and you can clearly see they\u2019ve gone downhill. It’s even more disappointing when they release new music and it sounds so good, but their marketing proves the artist as a person has gone downhill. I was introduced to JPEGMAFIA around 2021 by my late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[24,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":933,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}