Jay Electronica let loose a rough cut from Act II.
And it’s amazing. Even his throwaways are classics. The use of the samples in the background always sets Jay Electronica’s minimalist production apart from any other production he could get his hands on. I’m glad there’s space in hip hop and artistry where he doesn’t have to hop on someone else’s beat to kill it or prove something, and I’m glad he only speaks when he wants to, buzz or not.
“Nothing makes me sadder than hailing cabs alone, Going home on a Saturday, bumping Donny Hathaway.”
Just Blaze & Jay Electronica - Exhibit C
This song is magic. I’ve talked about it before, but it’s amazing live, too. Just killed it with the ad-libs.
That Reverend Run rocking Adidas out on Hollis Ave
Jay Electronica walking through New Orleans
It’s so mind boggling to think that, in America, there is a whole section of an entire city displaced. It really paints the picture of Exhibit A, which is added at the end.
Sidenote: How cool is it that Jay lit a cigarette, took a drag, and gave it away to somebody in the audience? It wasn’t the first time either! He split a bottle of Jack with an audience during his recent outing in London.
While you was blowing X amount of dollars on a bracelet, the sovereign nation of France was opening their files on the UFO phenomenon: I.E. spaceships. It’s just the facts, Jack. May as well face it: every rhyme I write will still get cracked in the chapter of Revelations, Adam will get cracked in the blackness of mediation. Mysterious shit: Call me Jay Dough-gone, I’m on some serious shit. Scholars wonder “Why do he bust?” The Lord blessed me with a Midas-y touch. Everything I laid to hands turned to Ethiopian gold, shiny and buff, I got a firm understanding on the minus and plus. So I ain’t got time to argue with a rapper about how he ain’t got rhymes that’s fucking with mines. I’m trying to kill Lucifer: so if I have to break because a rapper in my face telling me that he the great, you can bet a shiny nickel i’ll blast his motherfucking ass way past Jupiter. Couldn’t be stupider fucking with the Nuclear. Mayan, Aztec lion, Asiatic black man from Zion, Quetzalcoatl supreme, letting off steam. Dimethyltryptamine, make a man dream. But y’all would much rather hear me rapping about trash, the size of Erykah’s ass, blunts, and cash. We need saving, minds are consumed with swine, we need bathing…
“
—
Jay Electronica - FYI
There’s something about the way these words flow from Jay’s mouth over the major progression piano loop that make the world seem really light. Going through all of Eternal Sunshine is amazing. It’s beautiful, heartfelt and honest. You think “finally, someone is rhyming for the sole purpose of the art form, and not because they have to recoup label money”, and it’s fantastic. And then you get to 6:45, and then it’s just magic.
Yes, magic.
I seriously believe there are certain songs that are just magic, where certain words match up over certain melodies, and it makes you feel. There’s a part in the Bright Eyes song Four Winds that literally sends chills down my spine every time I hear it, and it’s magic. The FYI segment of Eternal Sunshine does something similar; it’s a comforting hug when no one’s around. There’s a mixture of humbleness and braggadocio in the words and the voice that feel almost parental here, like he’s hear for us, not to be confused with the y’all (those who want to hear about trash, the size of Erykah’s ass, blunts and cash), but us, his fans friends. I feel safe and well guarded when I’m listening to this verse, and it’s one of those things that make me hit the rewind button over and over and over.
Lately, this song has been lifting up my spirits. I’ve been trying to reconcile the string of every negative thing that’s happened in the past two years with the silver lining of it all. Recently I have been trying to build up hope, and remain hopeful, about what I’m working on and what’s next. Sometimes it’s not that easy.
When Jay raps about being without “a single slice of pizza” to his name, I can identify with his figurative and literal hunger. He further explains his situation of being down, homeless, fighting, but still, exclaiming his own pride, and confessing to having been spoke to by an angel, and with that, he offers his own silver lining in comparison to his negative past. He reconciles his current life style with what he wants next when his peers pose him with the prose of “You either build or you destroy.”
From there, Jay does both. He builds himself up by destroying the track, paraphrasing his peers by exclaiming “it’s quite amazing that rhyme like how you do and that you shine like you do like you grew up in a shrine in Peru.” Jay sincerely loves hip hop, and loves being honest, and it just feels good to hear it. I’m glad he’s spitting “that ‘he could pass a polygraph.’ that ‘Reverend Run rocking Adidas out on Hollis Ave.’”, because no one else is.
The grimy tales of crime, and the incessant naming of projects, streets, and neighborhoods, all add to authenticity. It’s also important to note that he doesn’t indicate himself in the crime. He acknowledges the fact that these things do happen, and even though he doesn’t participate, it’s a way of life he has seen, a way of life he doesn’t justify, but understands. He knows deep down that these actions are not progressive, and it is his want for progress that defines his reconciliation of the two (progressive lifestyle or the retroactive lifestyle), to further argue the point of progress. The maps and tales of his life strengthen that very argument into his own testament. Exhibit C indeed (Exhibit A being the second, Act I as the first).
He doesn’t consider his following as fans, but as family. His humbleness doesn’t go unnoticed. Finally, there is a rapper that’s being played on Hot 97 that isn’t talking down to us, but is talking with us, literally on Twitter/BBM/AIM.
It’s enlightening enough for me, an athiest, to want to change my Facebook religion to “Jay Elec-Hanukkah”. Well, either that or Team CoCo.
Jay Electronica - Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)
A song, using loops of melodies from the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (written by Jon Brion), rapped over by Jay Electronica, put together in five acts, with audio samples from various films, including the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, linking each act together. The five acts are as follows
01. “Intro”
02. “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind”
03. “…Because He Broke The Rules”
04. “Voodoo Man”
05. “FYI”
There is something insanely satisfying about FYI. With the composition being nine minutes long, it almost seems unfair to call the last 2 minutes of it a victory lap, but that’s how it feels. Then again, that’s how Jay Electronica raps. A victory lap in humbleness and humility that fills the listener with hope, with mild hip hop braggadocio in the midst of it all.
Jay Electronica might be the artist of the decade you never heard of.
This is my most played song in my iTunes at 155 plays and ticking.
This song is 2/2 of why you should care for Jay Electronica, the first being the pledge, which i know I’ve posted before.
Life is like a dice game One roll could land you in jail Or cutting cake blowing kisses in the rice rain
Jay Elec live from New Orleans my iPhone. I don’t care if I’m Stan-ing right now, but, Exhibit A is the nicest track of the year and I’ve become attached to the record.
My name is Shane, and it's been lengthened to Shanetron by other people throughout my life, so I've co-opted it. I talk about fashion, music, art and sometimes even my life.
You can see some of my
graphic design/illustration work chronologically in this blog.
This includes random ideas,
works in progress, process pieces,
and sometimes, finished pieces.
I have an online portfolio coming soon.
