Albums Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony (Discussion Thread)

[Majestyx]

Expectations were higher, tbh. His lyricism was not what it was ten years ago.

We waited 10 years and essentially got 7 tracks that he was on LESS than Jay-Z was, and Jay-Z murked him on every track he rapped on.

jay-z murked no one.

 

[OfTheCross]

let me tell you something...

I'm very busy lately...

I haven't had a chance to peruse this thread...

and until the last 2 days, I hadn't had a chance to actually listen to this album

yo.

this.
shyt.
is.
INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


nikka...I was walking around the house screaming with excitement about the BARS on this shyt!

This is rap!

THis is hip hop!

These nikkas are great communicators!

I can't wait to share this album with my son.

 

[ReasonableMatic]

let me tell you something...

I'm very busy lately...

I haven't had a chance to peruse this thread...

and until the last 2 days, I hadn't had a chance to actually listen to this album

yo.

this.
shyt.
is.
INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


nikka...I was walking around the house screaming with excitement about the BARS on this shyt!

This is rap!

THis is hip hop!

These nikkas are great communicators!

I can't wait to share this album with my son.

TAWK to these nikkas man!!

Album is straight FIRE

A full display of Blackness on a GLOBAL level

• African
• African-American
• Afro-Caribbean
• Black Muslim
• boastful Black pride talk
• intimate vulnerable talk

Album is FIRE and unapologetically BLACK

 

[bordeaux]

I don't understand what people are saying with this. His lyricism is as good as it was when I first heard him to me.

What are his older songs or verses that are so much higher caliber lyrically than what is on this album?

 

[TEH]

TAWK to these nikkas man!!

Album is straight FIRE

A full display of Blackness on a GLOBAL level

• African
• African-American
• Afro-Caribbean
• Black Muslim
• boastful Black pride talk
• intimate vulnerable talk

Album is FIRE and unapologetically BLACK

That’s the problem

I wonder whats the ethnicity of those complaining

 

[OfTheCross]

"Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my pen (Pen)
Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my sin (Sin)
Sometimes, like Santiago, at crucial points of my novel
My only logical option was to transform into the wind"

I love this section, shows the inner turmoil and pressure he may have been facing with that weight of expectation, metaphors nice. Held down by the gravity of his pen, because he was so nice lyrically he wanted to make sure he delivered lyrically so it may have made him apprehensive to release a full project. Maybe he's a perfectionist, some genius' are that way. Some don't mind putting everything they do out, on the other hand some are very particular. So it's almost like his lyrical skill was a gift and a curse, a gift because he was blessed with it but a curse because he had that weight of expectation and anything even perceived as less would be met with condemnation or ridicule. I like how within just a line there's so much in it and how potent it is.

Then goes on to speak about his own imperfections and flaws so putting himself in the world like that may be a concern, it all adds to the understanding and paints a fuller more in depth picture. The Saniago reference is exceptional as it fits his story perfectly, its the perfect simile. Can also be related to people in all situations in life when they get too tough or rough, many have had points in life where you have to be ghost or absent like Jay Elec has, where you need to take a step back because it was getting too overwhelming. At some of those times it was only logical for him to do that cause it was getting too much for him for his own sanity and well being, at points where it could have benefited his career not to be. That's the perfect reference he used for that and the set up was dope too.

Lol. I heard that bar last night and had to stand up out my seat man. This album raw as fukk to me

 

[OfTheCross]

My train is on schedule,
But I had to take the Underground Railroad like Harriet
Weave the whole industry, every jab I've parried it
My cross I carried it
My crown of thorns to cavalry from Nazareth
The orbit was too wide to calculate the azimuth
The journey was technically unexplainable, hazardous
Rise, young gods, all paths lead to Lazarus
The dry bones that lifted up from the valley dust
The prayers of the slaves are the wings that carried us
A field full of dreams is where they tried to BURY us

- Jay Electronica (Fruits Of The Spirit)

Whew!!

BARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Conscious Pilot]

This might stand the test of time...

 

[Conscious Pilot]

Our heavenly father
Like Vince Staples said, we just wadin' in the water
My people out in Flint still bathin' in the slaughter
*whispers*ICE*whispers*out here rippin' families apart at the border
Satan struck Palestine with yet another mortar
Lies from the reporters
Ass shots and stripper poles for the eyes of my daughter, hmmm..

 

[904]

Yeah honestly I just don't see it

In fact overall he's a better emcee as his delivery has improved even more since those days..

Lyrically none of those verses are any better than this

They say it was gon' never happen
But I survived Neverland like the Jacksons
You never swallow slanderous lies for the devil's satisfaction
I still got my glitter gloves
I still got my glitter socks
Now I'm Moonwalkin' on your couch with many zippers on my jacket (On my jacket)
Jay Cirque du Soleilica
I started on Tatooine but now I'm way out in Dagobah
Mastered the force, made my saber, I'm in the light now (Light now)
It's the hour of chaos, the black steel is on me right now (Right now)
(Kill 'em with that bullshyt)
Some ask me "Jay, man, why come for so many years you been exempt?"
'Cause familiarity don't breed gratitude, just contempt
And the price of sanity is too damn high, just like the rent
Mm-mm-mm, mm-mm-mm, uh, uh
Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my pen (Pen)
Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my sin (Sin)
Sometimes, like Santiago, at crucial points of my novel
My only logical option was to transform into the wind

Or this

He was brought up by the faithful
In the cage of every unclean bird, ungrateful and hateful
The legend of the clandestine reverend from the Bricks
With the master's grip to pull the sleeping giant out the ditch
And I ain't even have to wiggle my nose like Bewitched
I just up-shift to six, convert the V4 to a broomstick
Though I tarry through the valley of death, my Lord give me pasture
If you want to be a master in life, you must submit to a master
I was born to lock horns with the Devil at the brink of the hereafter
Me, the socket, the plug, and universal adapter
The prodigal son who went from his own vomit
To the top of the mountain with five pillars and a sonnet

 

[Ghpstface]

His style has changed a lot since then to more of an introspective, poetic style.

 

[L. Deezy]

That’s the problem

I wonder whats the ethnicity of those complaining

it aint even the ethnicity..

this generation on the whole (MY BLACK PEOPLE) are just so dumb'ed down musically and just oblivious to any real substance in music. Thats why the music so disposable.

this album you gotta sit with for some time..

 

[erker]

His style has changed a lot since then to more of an introspective, poetic style.

No. Act I dropped in 2007, which was highly introspective and poetic.

 

[dubsmith_nz]

Had the chance to listen to this album a few times and it really is amazing from a bars perspective. Jay E and Jigga are both on that shyt, Jigga seems sharper than he has in years. Wish the album was longer but I'm just happy it finally dropped.

Did Guru Master this? Songs seems to distort or don't sound as good when played loud to me, I've tried them on different headphones and systems but there isn't a lot of low end and the vocals seem to be mixed too high.

Very small criticism though.

 

[Ghpstface]

No. Act I dropped in 2007, which was highly introspective and poetic.

Those songs in the post I was responding to were recorded before Act I, even though they were released after. By Act I he had already started going in that direction and has been leaning more in that direction ever since