Even before he officially joined the Dreamville roster in 2017, JID was already moving differently. He was an artist sharpening his lyrical blades in the shadows, rapping with the ferocious precision of someone who hadn’t just studied the masters of the craft but had committed their every move to muscle memory. Now, three years after the cinematic introspection of The Forever Story, he has returned with God Does Like Ugly, his most elaborate and obsessive work to date. This is less an album and more an annotated thesis on the art of rhyme—a dense, frantic, and brilliant sprawl that solidifies his place as one of the most vital lyricists of his generation.
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The album ignites with “YouUgly,” a percussive and feral barrage of sound where stuttering 808s clash with what sound like snares being struck by live drumsticks. Across three dizzying beat switches, JID and guest Westside Gunn navigate a soundscape that lurches from punishing bass to collapsing gospel organs. His flow is a controlled demolition, a poetic recklessness that feels perpetually on the edge of chaos. The following track, “Glory,” feels like walking into a sermon already in progress, a soul loop echoing beneath a torrent of syllables that fly so fast they almost outrun comprehension. It’s a breathtaking display that sets the tone for the entire project: you must pay close attention, or you will miss something profound.
Throughout the album, JID explores the duality of the sacred and the profane. On “WRK,” a work song transformed into a war cry, he chants the title like a mantra, creating a space to swing his lyrical hammer with surgical precision. This spiritual intensity carries into “Community,” where he and the legendary Clipse deliver a street sermon steeped in prophetic static and boom bap urgency. But just as quickly, the mood can shift to the grimy and surreal. “Gz” rolls in with a heavy bass and a warped saxophone loop that sounds like jazz being dragged through a sewer grate, a moment of beautiful madness.
Yet, the album is not without its moments of levity. “VCR” offers a crooked snapshot of the American Dream, with JID and guest Vince Staples dissecting the wages of success over a dusty, collage-like beat from Jay Versace. The undeniable joy of “Sk8” is a highlight, a kinetic blend of highlife rhythms and slippery, melodic flows where JID, Ciara, and Earthgang sound like they are not just rapping, but dancing on the beat. This ability to pivot from dense lyricism to infectious melody is a testament to his incredible versatility.
The album’s emotional core is revealed in its back half. “What We On” arrives in a dreamlike haze, with Don Toliver’s autotuned vocals blooming over reversed bass tones. It leads into “Wholeheartedly,” a stunning track that feels like an orchestral ache of strings and choirs, with cameos from Ty Dolla $ign and 6lack smuggled into the lush arrangement. It is a moment of collective vulnerability, the sound of an entire room of different men feeling the exact same thing. The album’s most luxuriant moment might be “No Boo,” a gorgeous piano-led track rich with the vocals of Jessie Reyez, floating like a cherished memory.
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By the time the gut-punch finale “For Keeps” arrives, it’s clear that God Does Like Ugly is more than a collection of songs; it’s a reckoning. It’s a memo written to his past self—the hungry, unseen artist uploading verses into the void of SoundCloud while the world looked away. He isn’t asking for attention anymore; he is demanding it, not with volume but with an undeniable and singular vision. Every track is a room he has built from scratch, each syllable laid like brickwork, each beat switch a trapdoor leading somewhere deeper. The album is a dense, dazzling, and deeply alive body of work that reminds us that rap still breathes best when it sweats, stumbles, and mutates. Ugly, yes, but ugly like the truth.
