2009–2014: Early work and career beginnings At the age of 15, Hendricks developed an interest in
music production as he began producing after learning how to
sample. Describing his production, Hendricks said "When I was first making beats, no one liked the beats. I used to give people beats and they're just confused.", noting that "I started rapping because no one liked my beats at the time." Noting that he started producing before he started rapping, Hendricks said "I'm a producer first, rapper second but I take both of them seriously." During his military stay in
Japan, he was producing and writing music under the name of Devon Hendryx, with mixtapes being released under the name, including
Dreamcast Summer Songs,
Generation Y,
JOECHILLWORLD,
The Rockwood Escape Plan and
The Ghost~Pop Tape. Under the new name, he would release his first
mixtape,
Communist Slow Jams, in April 2015. Just a month later, he released his second mixtape,
Darkskin Manson, a tape that was inspired by the
Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore. Four months later, he released a collaborative
extended play with fellow Baltimore-based rapper Freaky, titled
The 2nd Amendment.
2018–2019: Veteran and All My Heroes Are Cornballs After three years of living in
Baltimore, Hendricks moved to
Los Angeles, California into finishing his-then upcoming and untitled second studio album. In January 2018, he released his second studio album, titled
Veteran. In an article on
Bandcamp, he said "I wanted to show I'm not just a one-trick pony. I always do weird shit. I usually just keep it to myself. This time, I just let the filter go." At the time of its release,
Veteran was considered JPEGMafia's most experimental album to date, receiving widespread critical acclaim. On June 3, 2025, Hendricks would announce the
"Director's Cut" for
Veteran, which released on streaming services on June 6. The album contains 6 new
bonus songs that were previously singles or on the
Not on Veteran! SoundCloud compilation. It also contains instrumentals on the
CD and
vinyl release. After the release of
Veteran, Hendricks started working on his next album. He recorded 93 songs and whittled it down to 18 tracks. He
mixed and
mastered it at the end of
Vince Staples' tour, posting percentage updates frequently on his
Instagram. Prior to the release, he would label the project as a "disappointment" in interviews and his
social media. The first single from the album, "Jesus Forgive Me, I Am a Thot", was released on August 13, 2019. He promoted the album by uploading a series of listening sessions to his
YouTube channel where friends and artists such as
Denzel Curry,
Jeff Tweedy (of
Wilco) and
Hannibal Buress discussed and reacted to cuts off of the album.
All My Heroes Are Cornballs was released on September 13, 2019, to further critical acclaim, and was his first album to chart. In October 2019, he embarked on the JPEGMafia Type Tour to support his new album.
2020–2023: EP!, EP2! and LP! In 2020, Hendricks released several singles across the span of the year and compiled them into an
extended play, aptly titled
EP!. It was released on Hendricks's Bandcamp page on November 7, and on streaming services with the addition of one extra single on December 10. On February 12, 2021, Hendricks released his third
extended play,
EP2!. Hendricks released his fourth album, titled
LP!, on October 22, 2021, the same day as his birthday, to further acclaim. Due to sample-related issues, the album was released as two separate versions:
LP! released on streaming services, and
LP! (Offline) (the original version) released for free on
Bandcamp,
YouTube, and
SoundCloud with more songs. On February 24, 2022, Hendricks announced via Twitter that the songs not on the "Online" version had been released to streaming services as the
extended play, titled
Offline!. On May 23, 2023, Hendricks released the complete "Offline" version of the album to streaming platforms.
2023–present: Scaring the Hoes, I Lay Down My Life for You and Experimental Rap On January 15, 2023, Hendricks made a hint on his social media that he was working on a collaborative project with fellow rapper,
Danny Brown. On January 20, 2023, Hendricks officially announced three albums will be dropping the same year. On February 10, 2023, Hendricks announced on his Twitter that the collaborative project with
Danny Brown was finished, and was working on his second album for the year. On February 28, 2023, on The Danny Brown Show, both Hendricks and Brown announced that their collaborative project was named 'Scaring the Hoes Vol. 1', and played a sneak peek of the first single on the project. On March 13, 2023, the first single of the project called "
Lean Beef Patty" was released to streaming services, and Hendricks announced that the collaborative project was set to release on March 24, 2023. The second single "Scaring the Hoes" was released to streaming services along with a music video. Three days later, the album was released. On July 11, 2023, an
EP of songs that did not make the cut for the album titled,
Scaring the Hoes: DLC Pack, which includes four tracks, was released on streaming services. He wrote and produced on the tracks "
Stars", "
Fuk Sumn", "
Beg Forgiveness", and "King" from
¥$'s album
Vultures 1 which was released on February 10, 2024. One of the deluxe editions of
Vultures 1 follow-up record
Vultures 2 features the track "Believer", which was written and produced by Hendricks. In preparation for his album, titled
I Lay Down My Life for You (revealed via Hendricks's Instagram), he released the singles "Don't Rely on Other Men" and "Sin Miedo" as well as announced the "Lay Down My Life" world tour with
RXKNephew as the opening act.
I Lay Down My Life for You was released on August 1, 2024. The deluxe edition of the album, titled ''I Lay Down My Life for You: Director's Cut'', was released on February 3, 2025. The "Director's Cut" edition includes 14 new tracks (originally planned to be 13, an extra was added to make up for the three-day delay in its release) and rearranges the existing track list. Despite Hendricks stating that the "Director's Cut" was the "original vision" for the album, it has multiple references to
Luigi Mangione, who began garnering significant media attention after the album had already released as well as themes of
suicide and
depression. On April 24, 2025, previous collaborator
Flume previewed a collaboration track with Hendricks, titled "Track 1", on YouTube. Three days later, both Hendricks and Brown confirmed that
Scaring the Hoes, Vol. 2 was in the works. Shortly after the announcement, both Hendricks and
Flume announced a collaborative EP titled
We Live in a Society, which was released on May 2, 2025. Hendricks co-wrote the song "Fya" for
K-pop group
BTS's album
Arirang, released on March 20, 2026. In April, Hendricks announced that his sixth album
Experimental Rap would be released on May 21, 2026. == Artistry ==