Jay Electronica

Blackdown

nexKeysound
Hopefully Jay will get big despite this Guardian piece which contains such journalism gems as...


"We're cutting corners here because we couldn't quite face listening to his one-hour interview with the BBC's Gilles Peterson"

and

"Now, we're no experts on the subject, but when it comes to hip-hop we know what we like, and we like our hip-hop sumptuously soft (PM Dawn), psychedelic (De La Soul, the Pharcyde), or savage to the point of amoral. In fact, when it comes to rap we still concur with Simon Reynolds's assessment, from a 1986 Melody Maker article reprinted in his 2007 compendium Bring the Noise, that "a big part of the pleasure of hip-hop is that it's appalling".

if the last hip hop you actually liked was PM Dawn, Pharcyde or De La, what are you doing writing the Guardian's new band of the day review?
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
whys he in that section? the writer doesnt even seem to like him.

im not a huge fan of jay elec - i know hes good but he doesnt seem to have much personality, but that world is yours cover was good.

i predict he will end up going the way of saigon.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
whys he in that section?

You mean cos he's not new or the writer doesn't like him? He's new to UK press mailouts, which makes him new to the Guardian. As for the latter, I quite like the fact the page is written by the same person every day, rather than doling out to the first writer who pops his hand up with gushing enthusiasm and then rewrites the press release. I just wish it wasn't Lester, a twat of the old 'me and my mouth' IPC school who oversaw Uncut during its Americana-or-bust era and is to 'new music' what Cameron & Osbourne are to the classless society.
 

lazybrowndog

Well-known member
jay electronica needs to test it out over a full length - he flirts as if he's the real deal - and some of the evidence is there - but he's still probably more talked about than listened to ... i want to hear something really capitalise on the momentum of exhibit c
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Jay Electronica has got to be the smartest rapper in years, in a strict sense of building up a following.

I remember hearing him freestyle over the Queens Get The Money beat he gave Nas, and thinking "... Is it sad that a hopeless devotee of Nas sounds better than his idol on this beat?"

The Saigon comparison is unfair though, he's less dependent on being 'real', which is wonderful. His reality is "Yeah, I was homeless a while back..." instead of "Yeah, I sold drugs..."
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
You mean cos he's not new or the writer doesn't like him? He's new to UK press mailouts, which makes him new to the Guardian. As for the latter, I quite like the fact the page is written by the same person every day, rather than doling out to the first writer who pops his hand up with gushing enthusiasm and then rewrites the press release. I just wish it wasn't Lester, a twat of the old 'me and my mouth' IPC school who oversaw Uncut during its Americana-or-bust era and is to 'new music' what Cameron & Osbourne are to the classless society.

G'waaaaaan Cracker!

I wish I liked Jay Electronica but I don't. I think he's boring.
 

Krasner

Well-known member
I find it hard to like anything with the word 'electronica' int the name but thos two tunes sound great. Has he got any good mixtapes I can listen to?
 

ether

Well-known member
I kind of like how he hasn't really put any music out. it doesn't appear to be a cynical marketing strategy i.e street level 'i only do mixtapes' thing, or a trying to create an internet buzz thing. i kind of like the inconsistency of it. I'm never quite sure what to expect from track to track.


 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
'Exhibit A' is the first hip hop tune I've heard in a while where I get the urge to memorise all the lyrics. The beat is great too - as with Exhibit C. Would love a whole album with him and Just Blaze (with some hi tek chucked in there too).

I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised that a genuinely good rapper can get this much hype around him.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
ok if hes not the new saigon, the new charles hamilton.

Except The Pink Power Ranger flooded us with overexposed music of not that high caliber and continued to make a public ass of himself (Making J Dilla the executive producer of a free album... then claiming he KNEW the guy...)

Jay Electronica has a hype built around... 30 or so songs over a 3 or 4 year career?

If anything he's guilty of trying really hard to be unique. But at the same time, it's not a negative in dudes built on trying to be miles beyond what they really are (What up, every other hyped rapper in the world?)

Exhibit C's still a let-down for me though.
 

samdiamond

Well-known member
'They call me Jay Electronica
Fuck that, call me Jay ElecHannukah
Jay ElecYarmulke
Jay ElectRamadan Muhammad Asalama'Aleykum Rasul'Allah subhana wa ta'Allah through your monitor
My uzi still weigh a ton, check the barometer
I'm hotter then the mothafuckin' sun, check the thermometer'

i think the dudes sick
 

petergunn

plywood violin
he reminds me a little of MF Doom... he's ok... i have played both Exhibit's A and C on my radio show just becuase they are solid but unexciting new underground-y hip hop...

i do remember Poisonous Dart mentioning him like 3 years ago...
 

tom lea

Well-known member
I quite like the fact the page is written by the same person every day, rather than doling out to the first writer who pops his hand up with gushing enthusiasm and then rewrites the press release.

yeah except with this guy all he seems to do is scan mags he thinks are 'cool' and rewrite their articles. all i know about him is band of the day and the collie buddz column, he seems like a douche.

i mean what the fuck is this, really? http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/09/new-band-jam-city

file next to carl craig, kraftwerk, aphex. right.
 

mos dan

fact music
yeah except with this guy all he seems to do is scan mags he thinks are 'cool' and rewrite their articles. all i know about him is band of the day and the collie buddz column, he seems like a douche.

i mean what the fuck is this, really? http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/09/new-band-jam-city

file next to carl craig, kraftwerk, aphex. right.

the collie buddz was part of the new band of the day column! so consistently, consistently awful. someone needs to compile his 'best' bits, there've been so many. i don't see how he can even enjoy it! he's written almost 800 profiles of 'new' 'bands' now - wouldn't you want a day off eventually?
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
the collie buddz was part of the new band of the day column! so consistently, consistently awful. someone needs to compile his 'best' bits, there've been so many. i don't see how he can even enjoy it! he's written almost 800 profiles of 'new' 'bands' now - wouldn't you want a day off eventually?

He doesn't enjoy it. He's an experienced jobbing hack with the skills to scan the opinions of the 'right' journalists, fashion a few knoackabout sentences and slap on some seen-it-all-before world-weariness of his own. Fine if you like that kind of thing, but absolutely the last person on earth who should be writing a 'new bands' (rockism alert!) column.
 

ether

Well-known member
'Exhibit A' is the first hip hop tune I've heard in a while where I get the urge to memorise all the lyrics. The beat is great too - as with Exhibit C. Would love a whole album with him and Just Blaze (with some hi tek chucked in there too).

I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised that a genuinely good rapper can get this much hype around him.

I can see why it won't appeal to everybody. but personally i haven't really got hyped about an mc since the early 00's I generally don't get rap. but this really speaks to me.
 

joe.dfx

who knows...
you guys should really check out P.O.S. if you haven't. I think he's of a similar mindset, he goes into rock influenced stuff sometimes a bit too much, but lyrically he's solid and his beats are typically really great.

on rhymesayers records.
 
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