Crucial Track for February 15, 2026

"Thug Tears" by JPEGMAFIA

#365songs (46 / 365)

Uncharacteristically linking to a specific performance of this track on YouTube rather than the album version, because they are night-and-day different aside from the beat and the COLORS show version is the one that I love. The album version is pretty sleepy. The COLORS version is... extremely not that.

Some kinds of over-the-top theatricality can get on my nerves a bit, but this performance absolutely is not one of those kinds. Maybe I should say none of this performance is those kinds, because through the whole thing, JPEGMAFIA is on about five different levels in the space of any given 20 seconds. The beat is really interesting and the lyrics are a series of compelling-enough near-non-sequiturs but in this particular performance they're just the means to the end of Peggy going spellbindingly batshit for three minutes. I challenge you to start this video and not watch the whole thing.