Jay Electronica “Eternal Sunshine: Act 1 (The Pledge)” Why I Chose This Album

My close friends and I are always looking for new music, thoroughly dissatisfied with most of the main stream, and always looking and praying for some ingenuity within hip-hop. My friend texted me sometime in September telling me that I had to download Jay Electronica’s “Act 1.” I responded “Is it an album?”- spurring another 5 lines attempting to describe the nature of the work; he told me some characteristics of this “album”: that is was a continuous 26 minute work, consisting of 5 parts (9 minutes of which is just spoken word), and that it consisted of a rapper, Jay Electronica, of whom little is known, rapping the most intricate, beautiful, and mind-blowing lyrics over compositions from the soundtrack of the Jim Carrey starred film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” I was already intrigued; it was like hearing about a 2-headed baby being born- skeptical, but just as eager to go on the Internet and Google the pictures. Upon first listen of the 26-minute song/album, I was head over heels, and immediately emailed my TA for my blog assignment to designate the work as the subject of my blog.

My first 5 listens, I found myself skipping back 10-20 seconds about every 30 seconds to try and decode the complex landscapes Jay Electronica was painting between my headphones. The opening piece is a cut of his romantic partner, Erykah Badu and producer, Just Blaze speaking about Electronica. Six minutes and 39 seconds later, I felt blessed with the understanding of greatness, and I was eager to be introduced to the man who would demonstrate it to me. To have one’s own girlfriend describe him as a “mythical creature” creates an aura for this rapper that just through the descriptions of others, already seems supernatural and way beyond the boundaries of “normal.” In the next 9 minutes I was listening in awe, as I heard the most beautiful, moody, enlightening rhymes from what I can only call an experience- rather than a song/album. He covers everything from the French governments release of their UFO files, to the story of a delicate love affair. The content within the lyrics transcended what seemed to me before, was the physical limit of worldly knowledge one person could embody. To me, “Act 1” became less of a piece of music, then it did a mysterious representation of a very special and supernatural person, (who just so happens to be the best rapper in the world) and the true meanings and processes of life that could only be seen from the “Eye of Electronica”, which is also the name of his Tumblr account.

Jay Electronica: The Man, The Myth, The Mineral