Overview

Veteran was released on January 19, 2018, by Deathbomb Arc. A music video for "Baby I'm Bleeding" was released on December 1, 2017. A second video was released on May 18, 2018 for "Real Nega". On September 12, 2018, a video for "1539 N. Calvert" was released. The album was released to widespread critical acclaim and was featured in numerous year-end lists; in 2019, Pitchfork listed it at number 171 in their list of best albums of the decade. Most of Veteran was recorded while JPEGMafia was living in Baltimore and was mixed and mastered when he moved to Los Angeles in mid 2017. He recorded around 120 songs and set aside 19 for the album. JPEGMafia attributed the album's aggressive and chaotic nature to "other shit" he experienced in Baltimore, and was able to fully understand it when he became level-headed in Los Angeles.