New Single: JPEGMAFIA – "PROTECT THE CROSS" | Deluxe Album Out Next Week

It's no secret I was a big fan of JPEGMAFIA's last album I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU. It was one of the most thrilling and unhinged records of 2024 with Peggy firing on all cylinders, trash-talking over some wild Rap Metal beats. Now he released a track that seems to be some sort of leftover from this era, not making it on the main album – and it's clear why. PROTECT THE CROSS doesn't have the energy of any of the Rap Metal songs that made the cut initially. Simply put, it doesn't go nearly as hard and feels way more honed-in when it comes to the quality of the production.

Lyrically, Peggy sticks with what he established on I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU: intense and fast-paced trash-talks that are as hilarious as they can be interpreted as pathetic. On ILDMLFY, they were far more self-consciously packaged, intriguingly delivered and – above all – backed by amazing instrumentation and production. PROTECT THE CROSS in contrast falls a little flat and it doesn't help that Peggy made somewhat of a Twitter comeback, keyboard-warring for his cause. Well, at least he distanced himself from Donald Trump on time for his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.

I'm still excited for what PROTECT THE CROSS is the herald of: a new deluxe edition of I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU called its “DIRECTORS CUT", as JPEGMAFIA announced it on his Twitter – or rather X – which is still, for some reason, his preferred platform for communicating with his audience. Along with the announcement came a brand new cover artwork that you can see to the left and also a PROTECT THE CROSS music video featured above. Why Peggy chose to make a music video for a leftover track and not for another one of the album tracks is quite frankly beyond me (probably marketing reasons).

The I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU (DIRECTORS CUT), coming out at an unspecified date within the next week, will contain 13 songs according to JPEGMAFIA's Twitter, part of which might or might not be instrumentals or remixes of the main album tracks. Hendricks also took the time to clarify that he, opposed to unfounded speculations from his fans, does not support the newly inaugurated US-president Donald Trump.