JID spent three years since The Forever Story working on the next step, and they seem to have paid off very handsomely in the new album God Does Like Ugly. While it’s only been out for a couple of hours, the hip-hop community is loving it and sharing its praises proudly on social media.

Whether it’s the feature choices, the half-rugged and half-pristine sonic direction, or the Atlanta spitter’s absurd flow switches and narrative ability, fans found a lot to love. JID already gave them a “preluxe” earlier this year with some other fiery tracks to hold them over. That quality standard was never a worry for die-hards, but they’re still happy he surpassed them.

Of course, a lot of the Internet hype came via the surprise features on God Does Like Ugly. These include Clipse, Vince Staples, Westside Gunn, Baby Kia, Mereba, EARTHGANG, Don Toliver, 6LACK, Ciara, Jessie Reyez, Pastor Troy, and Ty Dolla $ign.

Even though the stars came out to play, the Dreamville MC led the whole thing expertly in fans’ eyes. They picked up on a few lyrical narratives, such as his industry comments and his artistic reflections on simpler days.

JID New Album God Does Like Ugly

In addition, this follows a lot of other recent rap storylines and other collaborations that have built up God Does Like Ugly as a key hip-hop event of the year… Perhaps the decade. Not only did Clipse continue their run here, but more importantly, JID’s recent Alfredo 2 feature prepped fans in the perfect way for these lyrical gems within.

The “32” creative still has a lot of depth and detail in God Does Like Ugly which fans still have to unpack. Sure, the reception isn’t all positive, but the overwhelming acclaim will probably evolve a lot over time. After all, deeper analysis of the record can’t materialize in just a few hours.

Fan Reactions

With all this in mind, we’ll see how God Does Like Ugly ages not just this year, but across the next years of contemporary hip-hop discourse. JID gave fans another great body of work here, and their reactions feel quite cathartic after the post-Forever Story wait.