REVIEW: JPEGMafia & Danny Brown's "SCARING THE HOES" via AWAL + DLC Pack

The last two weeks of March were a lot. It felt like absolutely everything I wanted to hear in the year was locked to just those two weeks and as a result I didn’t actually review much of it, if any. I know this has never exactly been a rap blog but I’m trying to be more aware of things going on in the genre. I was really looking forward to this album like a lot of people online but felt like I missed my chance to talk about it. That is until the team-up of Peggy and Danny Brown released a “DLC” pack with four new songs to add to this record.

To start, I actually really love the idea of releasing a sort of addendum EP as opposed to a deluxe record. “Where Ya Get Ya Coke From” is a great note to end Hoes on and I’m happy to see four new songs of this style. I don’t think these are better or worse than the actual record and whether or not you agree it's just nice to see these two stand together and create one last memento of their collaboration. That is to say that I don’t have much of a review of the EP, just that I do think JPEGMafia specifically is more brutal than he was on the full length. His Baby Keem line in particular I love but the thing is I don’t have enough knowledge about Keem’s music to know if he’s a better or worse rapper than Peggy, but that’s also not what he was saying. He was saying that he worked for the success and the refinement of his sound while Keem’s fame is sort of coming off of who he’s related to. I could do without the use of the r-slur on “Guess What Bitch” but that’s my only real complaint.


On Peg as well, I find his use of samples fascinating in that I don’t think a lot of people would make the production decisions he does. A lot of producers will use a well known pop hook, chord progression or riff and use it as the foundation of a track. Not many will take that hook, speed it up and just throw it in there. There are so many cool sounds and interpretations of those sounds on songs like “Garbage Pail Kids” and “God Loves You” that I was able to look into those songs’ credits and discover music I didn’t even know about. I did have two major stand outs in terms of production, however, with the first being “Fentanyl Tester.” The samples of “Milkshakes” and “It Takes Two” stand out in a big way but don’t take the easy way out of playing off your nostalgia; instead they take those expectations and turn them on their head. Then the smooth, lo-fi stylings of “Orange Juice Jones” is special and when Danny raps just off beat to the whole thing it makes it feel great every time.


To praise Danny some more I want to point out he’s incredible on this project as well. Danny’s flow on this entire record is truly something to behold, to loop back around to “Garbage Pail Kids” another thing I love about that cut is that not only is Peggy on fire, Danny is rapping over this beat having an absolute blast. His delivery on “Steppa Pig” is some of my favorite Danny Brown rapping period and while I’m not exactly an expert of his past records, songs like that make me want to be. Danny is actually my highlight in general on the DLC. On “Tell Me Where to Go” he uses an inflection that I’ve never heard out of him that sounds sincere and real. On “No!” he closes this EP out with an a capella verse describing himself as a bit anti-social and anxious in a way that, sure sounds worrying, but also just sounds great as if my world just freezes whenever this track is on.


This record is about these two artists coming together though, and they do. I already highlighted “Steppa Pig” but it really is everything I wanted from Scaring the Hoes. The title track really gets me as well. I’m a sucker for artists critiquing their own music and the culture that comes with it before anyone else can and the thing is? I could see someone having this take verbatim about this record. It’s not easy, it's not very poppy and another reason this got pushed on the blog schedule so hard was because until re-evaluating it with the extra tracks I didn’t have the words to put to it why I thought it was good. In that way maybe it lived up to the title, this hoe was scared. The only real “issues” I can find in this whole experience is that I don’t love every song, but then I recognized something. I don’t fully get every song. Like sure, “Kingdom Hearts Key” almost breaks my immersion and “Run the Jewels” doesn’t hit every time. But the latter is the shortest song on the record and, well, I am a white girl! I get that. I’m still learning about this genre as a whole. I really love this record though and wanted to sing its praises while the door was open again.

Our Rating - 9/10

SCARING THE HOES
  1. Lean Beef Patty
  2. Steppa Pig
  3. SCARING THE HOES
  4. Garbage Pal Kids
  5. Fentanyl Tester
  6. Burfict!
  7. Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up / Muddy Waters
  8. Orange Juice Jones
  9. Kingdom Hearts Key [feat. redveil]
  10. God Loves You
  11. Run the Jewels
  12. Jack Harlow Combo Meal
  13. HOE (Heaven on Earth)
  14. Where Ya Get Ya Coke From
DLC Pack
  1. Guess What Bitch, We Back Hoe!
  2. HERMANOS
  3. Tell Me Where to Go
  4. No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

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