JPEGMAFIA

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Personal Life And Education

Career

Featured Artist On Singles

Guest Appearances

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JPEGMAFIA

Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks (born October 22, 1989), who goes by the stage name JPEGMAFIA, is an American rapper and record producer from Flatbush, Brooklyn. ^[8]^[9]^[10]

Personal Life And Education

Hendricks was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn to Jamaican parents and experienced culture shock after moving to Alabama at age 13. The racism he encountered in the South had a profound influence on his later music.

When he turned 18, Hendricks moved to Louisiana and joined the Air force. Hendricks served a tour of duty in Iraq and spent several years around Kuwait, Germany, Japan, and North Africa. Hendricks was honorably discharged. He moved to Louisiana shortly after that and later moved to Los Angeles. Even though Hendricks spent years in the military he's not a big fan of the military industrial complex. He told Pitchfork: ^[2]

"Daily life in the military is fucking horrible.
Especially if you’re a creative, and especially if you’re not some frat bro, misogynistic dumbass."

Hendrick's identifies politically with the left, though he often feels they're too civil and don't fight hard enough for their ideals.

He told the Los Angeles Times: ^[3]

"The left has this idea about, ‘They go low, we go high,’ but I’d rather give the right the same aggression back.
It works!
Liberals allow right-wingers on their platforms to have a ‘civilized discussion,’ but there’s no reasoning with racists. I don’t want them to have a platform that humanizes them. I want to talk down to them and meet them exactly where they are, with absolutely no respect."

Hendrick's doesn't want to be pigeonholed musically either, he'd prefer to make music with artists ranging from Danny Brown to Cannibal Corpse to Maroon 5. Hendricks has drawn inspiration from artists like Ol' Dirty Bastard, Throbbing Gristle, Hanson, Ice Cube, Sarah McLachlan and Backstreet Boys. He shared a story about how Prodigy of Mobb Deep inspired his love for subversive lyrics with the Los Angeles Times: ^[3]

"When I first heard ‘Pearly Gates’ by Mobb Deep and 50 Cent growing up, the rapper Prodigy had a line about wanting to beat Jesus up,” he said. “I wasn’t religious, but I’d never been introduced to something like that. I was scared and mad, but then I asked why I felt like that. He was rapping about growing up in the projects and prayer wasn’t changing anything for him. I felt that way too. It changed my mind and I started questioning everything."

Hendricks has a master's degree in Journalism that he earned online when he was stationed in Japan. ^[4]

Career

Hendricks began producing music after learning how to sample while he was in the military. During his military stay in Japan, he started the group Ghostpop and began making music under the name JPEGMafia. Ghostpop gained recognition in Tokyo before Hendricks returned to the United States. In 2015, JPEGMafia moved to Baltimore and started to release music as a solo artist. ^[4]^[5]

After several mixtapes, Hendricks dropped his debut studio album, Black Ben Carson, in February 2016, through Deathbomb Arc. Four months later, JPEG worked with Freaky on a collaborative EP titled The 2nd Amendment. On January 19th of 2018, Hendricks released his second studio album, Veteran, which was a play on both his military service and status in the music game. His third album, All My Heroes Are Cornballs, was released on September 13, 2019. ^[6]^[7]

He appeared on the Genius Verified series to break down the meaning of "Jesus Forgive Me I Am A Thot". ^[20]