Review Summary: Despite lack of variation, Jak Tripper pulls together a surprisingly good horrorcore album.
HIDEOUS is the latest album by West Chester, NY horrorcore emcee Jak Tripper (aka Jakprogresso). Tripper released this album independently as another installment of his unique, battle-style gore raps. Each mixtape/EP/LP/collab he assembles manages to showcase his ability to shock, gross out, and terrify his audience with punchline-laden, quasi-Satanic rap verses not seen since Esham or Ganksta N-I-P. However, most of his releases suffer from uninteresting production, lack of talented guest features, or absence of differing concepts (the notable exceptions being 2007’s “Random Violence” and 2012’s “Cubensis Sessions”). This time, I specially ordered a physical copy of the record in anticipation for the album as well as for this review, and received a CD copy a few days later (emblazoned with an original Jak Tripper cartoon of a deformed fetus holding a mic, surrounded in the womb with blunts and syringes - lovely). Being advertised as his “favorite album to make,” I was hoping that HIDEOUS would quell my concerns with the vast majority of his catalogue, actually explore some interesting topics, maybe utilize livelier beats.
It seems that HIDEOUS quelled those concerns. Most of them.
Right from the get go, Tripper slings multisyllabic rhyme schemes full of graphic imagery; his lyrics contain just as many punchlines as ever thanks to his experience as a battle rapper (note the lines “I wrote melodies fresh out of outpatient with sutures” or “You want a calling from God? Imma phone you”). Each song shares the core theme of pure bloodthirsty insanity; whether Jak is channeling serial killer John Wayne Gacy on the macabre murder track “Sad Clown,” brutally assaulting other rappers in a cypher on the LSD-inspired cut “School Trip,” or engaging in graphic sex with the goddess Venus on the song “Crushing Venus":
I crush superior, break the interior overflow seminal flood
Her bated breath lured nights into a white worm laying drunk off a stench from the lust
But not this night, all night I slow the wound ‘til then stomach distend from the plug
The blind sense she's sent from above
I see an ascension from slugs
She turns up what's under my flesh into slush
Wicked wench wrench in my gut
” However, throughout the 30 minute runtime of HIDEOUS, Jak tends to use the same disjointed flow, only changing it up to rap faster on “School Trip” and “Judas Chair.” Unfortunately, this, the jarring absence of a chorus (the sole exception being “Stained Glass”) and the notable lack of any guest rappers makes some songs sound too much alike. Elsewhere, HIDEOUS’s beats were crafted by Twist L’s, Caligari Cutz, Hexx Looper, and Veto Mega. All of them produce minimalist instrumentals that convey bleakness and darkness. Many of the beats feature few traditional instruments, instead opting for atmospheric/dark ambient sounds accompanied by heavy boom-bap-like drum loops. They shouldn’t work, but pair them with Jak’s madman lyricism and it’s a great fit.
Overall, I actually enjoyed HIDEOUS more than I thought; despite a few flaws, it flows well and illustrates uniquely horrific scenes - just as it intended to do. Horrorcore fans or not, give this one a listen.
