If I had to sum it up in one sentence, Jay Electronica has been the best non-album rapper in history for thirteen years. Until a few days ago, Jay Elec was a rapper from New Orleans who had released a mixtape in 2007 and… little else. Since then, she had been continuously announcing that he was going to release his first album. Last Thursday he fulfilled and launched A Written Testimony.The album has not left anyone indifferent: it lasts 40 minutes and seems more like a mixtape by Jay Z.
Who is Jay Electronics?
Jay Electronica is synonymous with one of the rarest myths in rap history. How a 43-year-old rapper who has never released an album can have such a respected name in the industry? days before the release of A written testimony, the entire hip hop community wondered the same thing: are the threats what this time yes? Is Jay Electronica really going to release an album (on Jay Z's label) that he has been preparing for over a decade?
Yes, it was true. And I wish it hadn't been. Whichever way you look at it, the album has been an absolute disappointment. Thirteen years of waiting cannot be dispatched with 10 cuts full of interludes and almost more interventions by Jay Z than by Jay Electronica. Strictly speaking, this cannot be considered a Jay Electronica debut album.
criticism of A written testimony: A bad taste joke
Jay Electronica album cover, A written testimony.
Let's keep it simple and schematic. No frills and to the point:
- Jay Z is not only the first to intervene (after an endless intro very Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge), is that Jay Z intervenes in all the songs. Normal that the rapper has fought with Joe Budden on Twitter: he is one of the few who has dared to tell him the truth. This sounds more like a Jay Z record than a Jay Elec record.
- 40 minutes, too many interludes and, in short, moments without music, and too much religion. Are African Americans God's New Chosen Children? Blacks are the new Jews? Is Jay Elec Hov's protégé? Ok, we get the game: (God-Jesus Christ/Jay-Z binomial now becomes Jay Electronica). It's the same. The theme of the album is loaded. And it's so short that it doesn't have time to be a concept album.
- cut number 5, Shiny suit theory, I could have saved it. It was published on the Internet 10 years ago.
- Jay Electronica's bars on this album are nowhere near the quality standard of their previous songs.
- Returning to Jay-Z… the man is still rapping like he's not 50 years old. Jay-Z is as usual: ten. Jay Electronica is inevitably overshadowed by Hovito's presence.
- The bases chosen for A written testimony they are heavy, dark and very repetitive.
To understand the magnitude of this strange release, you have to look back. Far behind.
Electronic Jay's album: a myth at the height of the Detox by dr dre
The soap opera is invariably reminiscent of the other most famous non-disco in American hip-hop history. Another one that never made it out: Detox. which would be third and final installment of the saga of Dr. Dre after TheChronic y 2001 never ended up seeing the light because the boss was not happy with the final result (more info in this article of ).
That's how professional Dr.Dre is and how concerned he is about his name that he'd rather lose thousands of dollars than have his legacy scratched because of a product that is not up to par.
In 2015,, with Detox scrapped (and replaced by Compton to accompany the premiere of the NWA movie), Jay Electronica replaced Dre at the top of the list of rap myths, legends and rumors. Like Dre, the one from New Orleans had (and has) been saying for years that yes, that this year did not happen.
All lie.
Why is Jay Electronica still being talked about?
As has happened with recent viral hits type Rascal of RMR, if we get (we got) nervous with Jay Electronica it's because his name comes (or came) endorsed by important doses of quality at the microphone. In a way, Elpadaro F. Electronica Allah, known professionally as Jay Electronica, He has been playing with us for thirteen years. Playing with him hyping caused by his first mixtape.
Here is a complete chronology of the soap opera.
- 2007, July: Jay Electronica releases his first EP (on MySpace!). Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) It is more of a 15-minute solo piece (without kick and snare and several interludes where producer Just Blaze speaks, among others) that is a groundbreaking letter of introduction: here is a lyricist with something to say.
- 2007, December: no sign of Act II. After causing a collective furor throughout the US rap community, Jay Electronica had announced the release of the second part of his mixtape for Christmas day. Be quiet.
- 2009, December: yes but no. Again, it was rumored that Act II would appear during December 25, 2009. Nothing.
- 2010, November: Jay Z enters the scene. Jay Electronica signs a contract with Jay Z's Roc Nation record company. During the launch party he performs the song The announcementmen, the first of his two new songs with Shiny Suit Theory. Now it seems that yes, yes, Jay Electronica's album is a reality.
- 2011, July: album finished. Jay Electronica tweeted that Act II Patents of Nobility (The Turn) is recorded and finished. He assures that Erykah Badu, Jeymes Samuel, Tony Tagoe and Jay Z have already listened to the Bun B album.
- 2011, October: Jay Electronica releases the song Call of duty in collaboration with Prodigy from Mobb Deep.
- 2012, March: Jay Electronica assures that he has finished his album (¿?). Here the news you posted Complex.
At this point in the game, everyone assumes that Jay Electronica's album is some kind of joke. As it happened with detox, the hip hop community accepts that it won't come out. Even so, Electronica's constant stream of quality collaborations and interviews (and gigs) help keep the flame alive of the hype
- 2012, July: songs list. Jay Electronica publishes the assumption tracklist of their first album (more information below)
- 2013, July: "It's my turn," our liar friend tweets, coinciding with Jay Z's album release Magna Carter Holy Grail.
- 2013, August: Control. Pure history of hip hop, Control is a song (belonging to the album of the same name released by Big Sean) in which Jay Electronica and, more importantly, a Kendrick Lamar who has just released Good Kid Maad City and that uses Control by way of confirmation: there is a new king on the dance floor. The piece by Kendrick Lamar overshadows the intervention of Jay Electronica and that of Big Sean, whom Lamar humiliates in a way on his own album. It is one of the most aggressive, unexpected and mythical collaborations in the history of rap. A year later, Kendrick Lamar would consecrate himself with To Pimp a butterfly, their third album. A fixture on any list of the best rap albums in history.
- 2013, September: Producer Just Blaze grants an interview to hip hop dx in which he assures that the album is practically finished and it only remains to give a few adjustments to some bases and that Electronica corrects a few bars.
- 2014, March: A tweeter (Erick Grady) tells Jay Electronica why doesn't he release a song and Jay goes and releases it: Better In Tune With The Infinite Featuring LaTonya Givens.
- 2014, September: Jay Electronica talks about the impact his album will have in an interview for Hip-Hop Wired.
- 2015, March: Jay Electronica launches a new single, now on Soundcloud: road to perdition
- 2015, July: Another new song: Man up.
- 2015, August: shot at Drizzy and Cole: During a concert in London, Jay Electronica proclaims himself the god of rap and challenges Drake and J.Cole. More info in this article by DJ Booth.
- 2016, February: new song: The Curse of the Mayweather
- 2016, July: Electronica thanks their fans for their patience on Twitter and suggests that their album is about to drop by promoting Tidal, the music platform streaming of Jay Z, saying something like "You don't have Tidal yet?".
- 2017, June: new song: Letter to Fallon.
- 2020, February: Jay Electronica tweets that his album, A written Testimony, is finished and that it will be released on March 18, 2020.
- 2020, March 10: Tidal announces three listening parties from Jay Electronica's debut album in LA, New York and New Orleans. It has been 13 years since the release of his first and only mixtape. Considering his debut album sounds like a joke and, however, that is the correct name.
It's time. We're giving @JayElectronica fans an exclusive first listen of his album 'A Written Testimony' with 3 intimate events in NY, LA, & New Orleans.
RSVP: https://t.co/gRl7iexHD8 pic.twitter.com/gzcSdcw2wB
- TIDAL (@TIDAL) March 11, 2020
Provisional tracklist for Jay Electronica's first album announced in 2012
This is the list of songs that good old Jay published in his day. Includes collaborations from Kanye West, Jay Z and… Ronald Reagan?
- Real Magic [ft. Ronald Regan]
- New Illuminati [ft. Kanye-West]
- Patents of Nobility
- Life on Mars (@FatBellyBella)
- Bonnie & Clyde guest starring Serge Gainsbourg
- Dinner at Tiffanys (The Shiny Suit Theory) [ft. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jay-Z & The-Dream]
- Memories & Merlot
- Better in Tune with the Infinite [ft. Latonya Givens]
- A Letter to Fallon
- Road to Perdition [ft. Jay Z]
- Welcome to Knightsbridge [ft. [Sean Diddy Combs]
- Rough Love [ft. Kanye-West]
- Run & Hide guest starring The Bullitts
- Nights of the Roundtable (first draft skeleton)
- 10,000 Lotus Petals
Is it possible that everything related to Jay Electronica is nothing more than a practical joke stretched out in time? The ball is now in Tidal's court. It is said, it is commented, that a disk of truth it could be falling. A written testimony It's a joke in bad taste.