Jay Electronica

Hip-Hop

Jay Electronica is a rapper and producer known for his use of percussionless film soundtracks as a background for raps, his abstract lyrical style, and his associations with Erykah Badu, Just Blaze and Nas. He produced the first track, Queens Get the Money, on the 2008 Nas album Untitled. The unconventional nature of much of his music, and the lack of conventional release methods for that music, have since 2007 made him the object of much attention. He is perhaps best known for the piece of music Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge). Signed to Badu's Control Freaq Records, Electronica is yet to release an album or single. His music so far has been made available through the internet, either through being leaked to what URB magazine describes as obscure web forums, or through an appearing and disappearing myspace page (currently two seem to be in existence, at /jayelect and at /jayelectronica). Badu has questioned whether he ever will release, in her words, actual albums. Originally from the Magnolia Projects in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., he has lived in Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Denver, and Detroit, where he recorded his Style Wars EP with several J Dilla beats, meeting the producer subsequently to ask for permission to use the recordings as a demo. Detroit is also the home of Mr. Porter, who has produced for Electronica, and is where Electronica met engineer Mike Chav Chavarria, now a regular collaborator. Jay Electronica first gained significant attention through Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge), made available on a myspace page in 2007. It is 15 continuous minutes of music, without drums, built from Jon Brion's soundtrack to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There are five segments or movements, marked by changes in music and mood, raps by Electronica, and occasional snippets of sampled dialogue (children arguing in Farsi, Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka). The first segment is spoken word by Just Blaze and Erykah Badu describing the artist over piano music. The nature of the piece of music, along with the nature of its appearance, led to a slow build-up of interest in Electronica as an enigmatic figure. Style Wars gained wider circulation, and other tracks, such as the dream-inspired Dimethyltryptamine, appeared. In January 2008, Giles Peterson's 90-minute Giles Peterson Worldwide was devoted to the rapper.[5] Hiphopdx.com in 2008 called him arguably...the most talked about new emcee last year ... at times......