JPEGMAFIA has already unleashed an EP’s worth of songs this year, and now he’s back with another one in “living single”.
The track is barely two-and-a-half minutes long, and in some ways it’s quite strange. “living single” opens with Peggy singing the lyrics to Mariah Carey’s “You’ll Always Be My Baby”. He then launches into a bouncing stream-of-consciousness verse that takes him to the end of the song. Is it actually about living single? Perhaps for two or three lines. For the most part, he rattles off punchlines while staying snug in the pocket of the beat, ripping off lines like, “Dark skinned and givin’ out work, I feel like Kelly Rowland/ I don’t need no therapy, beats give me consolin’.” It’s a toe-tapping masterclass in syllables and flow.
The accompanying music video was directed by Peggy himself, and shows him strutting around the beach or dancing down city streets while holding his favorite accessory: a lit joint. Check out “living single” below.
The lowercase title of “living single” separates it from most of JPEGMAFIA’s 2020 releases. Five of his previous singles have been part of an all-caps exclamation-point series, including “BALD!”, “COVERED IN MONEY!”, “BODYGUARD!”,“CUTIE PIE!”, and “THE BENDS!”, as well as the “BALD! REMIX” featuring Denzel Curry. Two weeks ago he shared “ROUGH 7” (no exclamation) with Tommy Genesis, and earlier this summer he guested on BROCKHAMPTON’s “chain on / hold me”. Peggy has joined the lineup of Outside Lands 2021, and his song “Papi I Missed You” made Thom Yorke’s second Sonos Radio mix.
