Billboard asked, “What would it take for you to finally put the project out?” Electronica responded, “An album is something that was created by corporations as a product to make money.” The man’s been in the public consciousness for nearly 13 years, probably rapping in some form for almost twice that time, and - lo and behold - a debut album has arrived. Suddenly, everybody wanted a piece of Jay Electronica: Labels entered a bidding war for him, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation won out and then Electronica spent the next decade as a nutty Twitter grumbler with only leaked songs and loose singles to his name. In 2009, he dropped “Exhibit C,” a not-so-cult classic of sorts that is - over a decade later - still way ahead of our time. He then started dating singer Erykah Badu the eccentricity of her partners after dating her has been the subject of memes in the hip-hop community. He first came up in the mid-2000s with hits on MySpace. It’s been a long time coming, but Jay Electronica’s debut album has arrived.New Orleans rapper Jay Electronica is one of the greatest enigmas in the history of hip hop. “I’m serious,” he insisted, after the room began laughing.įollowing the livestream, A Written Testimony hit Tidal it’s expected to be released on all platforms on Friday. “The most patient man alive,” Electronica said, describing his mentor. The rumors that it was a joint album weren’t strictly correct - but it’s close. He was also on the second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and 10th songs. Then, he played the album.Īfter a brief, string-filled introduction, the first voice on the album - based on the order it was played on the livestream - wasn’t Jay Electronica’s, but Jay Z’s. “We’re going to blast from the top,” he said, as soon as he reached 4,000 viewers on his livestream. “This is the safest room on earth right now,” Electronica said, after Big Sean requested that everyone wear gloves. Electronica held the phone himself and played “4:44” over the monitors as a large group crowded into a studio. Until 2020, that is, over 10 years since his last agreed-upon masterwork, “Exhibit C.” Late on Thursday night, Electronica appeared on Instagram Live listening parties that were scheduled in New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans were cancelled due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic. The game changed, over and over again, and the one-time savior of the art of rapping stubbornly refused to arrive. The debut album rap fans were waiting for never materialized. There are scattered songs and appearances - all of them range from good to dazzling - but he gradually receded from view. It would be the last project he’d release for nearly 15 years.Īfter that, rumors about Jay Electronica’s personal life began to spike, and the music began to dry up. It was a weird, dense track - he doesn’t take control of it until 6 minutes in, happy to build mystique and atmosphere - but the rapping was so immediately, titanically good, that Electronica was quickly hailed as the genre’s next great hope. Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) was his introduction, a 15-minute piece featuring Electronica rapping over Jon Brion’s score for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Jay Electronica, a New York transplant from New Orleans, arrived online in 2007. Even then, it was hard to be sure that the album was real, and for good reason: Everyone’s been waiting for a while. But next to no confirmable details emerged until Electronica himself shared a tracklist. He - and his label, Jay Z’s Roc Nation - had stoked the fires, and rumors abounded, including that this would be a joint project with Jay Z. Until it arrived on Thursday night in the midst of a pandemic, almost no one could assert one way or another whether Jay Electronica ‘s album was actually going to appear.
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