The Church of Wordplay: JID’s God Does Like Ugly

A sermon for the ADHD prophets and lyrical perfectionists among us.

The Gospel According to a Rapper Who Prays in Double-Time

I went into this album with one mission: don’t compare it to The Forever Story. Because comparisons tend to ruin good art by measuring it against ghosts of greatness, thankfully, I held the line. God Does Like Ugly isn’t a sequel; it’s a confession booth wired with subwoofers. It’s JID praying out loud and occasionally rapping faster than I can process emotion. This is a sumptuous record—dense, quotable, and layered like a linguist’s fever dream. JID continues to make my argument that rappers are the most ill-ist users of the English language alive. Every syllable is both a sermon and a scrimmage.

And he’s not alone. This album feels like a cipher blessed by the divine: Westside Gunn, Clipse, Vince Staples, Ciara, EARTHGANG, Don Toliver, Ty Dolla $ign, 6LACK, Jessie Reyez, Baby Kia, Mereba, and even Pastor Troy. If heaven had a tracklist, this is what it would look like.