The Mystery of Jay Electronica

Jay Electronica is a rapper, but some my call him a Wizard, Poet, Activist, Philosopher, or a Preacher. I call him mysterious because you may know what most rappers are working on, or doing in their spare time but not with Jay Electronica. Jay Electronica first gained significant attention in the industry after the release of the musical composition Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge), which was made available on a MySpace page in 2007 and has been called a "timeless classic" by Vice Magazine. It is fifteen continuous minutes of music, without drums, built from Jon Brion's soundtrack to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind where Jay showed his unorthodox style and deep revolutionary lyrics. 

In 2009 he linked up with legendary producer Just Blaze and released two singles "Exhibit A" and "Exhibit C". "Exhibit C" which won a Sucker Free Summit Award for Instant Classic and was my first in counter with Jay Electronica's music. The beat was what first caught my ear, produced by legendary producer Just Blaze you would of thought he'll save a beat of this stature for a multi Platinum artist and not a underground rapper with one mix tape with four tracks. As I heard it more and more I realized he was the perfect artist to rap over this amazing instrumental mixed with a Billy Stewart sample. Just Blaze understood only a special artist could make you forget how great the beat was and only focus on the incredible lyrics.

 

 

 

Jay Electronica was born Timothy Elpadaro Thedford on September 19, 1976, in the Magnolia Projects of New Orleans. Jay began rapping after hearing his nephew Akeem Pryor rhyme. By the age of 19 Jay Electronica left New Orleans to pursue his musical career. Living a mostly nomadic lifestyle, he found refuge in cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, New York, and shortly in Atlanta. From club to club, and stage to stage, Electronica had gotten booed because of his Southern accent and slang. "In my earlier years when I first left home, I was embarrassed from being from the South," Jay said "not in general, but as a rapper because all of the negative things that people in the States put on the South."

 

 Jay's career really took form in Detroit when he linked up with Detroit native Johnnie Last, a friend he had spent a lot of time with at Darp Studios in Atlanta. In Detroit, Electronica met producer/engineer Mike "Chav" Chavarria, who introduced him to both the late great J. Dilla, and Mr. Porter. It is here that he recorded his Style Wars-era music with several J.Dilla beats, meeting the producer subsequently to ask for permission to use the recordings as a demo. In November 2010, Jay-Z announced that Jay Electronica was officially the newest member of his Roc Nation imprint. Before signing to Roc Nation in 2010, Jay Electronica was a prospective signee of Bad Boy Records, a label owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs, with whom Jay is professionally close with.

 

Jay Electronica has yet to release a full-length album, but he keep teasing us with leaked singles. Recently he appeared with Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar on the "Control" track that had the rap game going crazy because Kendrick took shots at the upcoming artist including Jay Electronica. I still hold my ground saying that Electronica had the best verse on "Control" Kendrick verse was hot but if he didn't name drop it would of been another hot Kendrick verse. Jay leaked his first song in 2014 in March "Better In Tune With Infinite" Ft. LaTonya Givens. Giving us what he always do which is bars and knowledge combing the two so eloquently over a slow soulful beat with Ms. Givens harmonizing in the background. Now the rap game is just waiting on Jay Electronica to drop an album or another single anything to hold the fans off until he's ready to take the game over he has all the potential to, but will he capitalize from it do he want to?