today we're talking about a rapper with a very small catalog but despite this his music is still respected his music caught the attention of Industry giants like Jay-Z and Diddy and for a moment in time Jay was briefly the object of a bidding war before he decided to sign with Rock Nation despite his seemingly guaranteed success Jay's head was not always in the music and his music got pushed back time and time again also despite his very sluggish movement in the industry Jay has been involved in quite a few controversies some of which include 50 Cent Kendrick Abol Eminem and Joe Buton Also let's not forget that J Electronica was once involved with a Roth's child like how does a guy with no album and no real presence in the industry go from dropping a mixtape to dating someone who's practically royalty today we're going to discuss everything that Jay was up to when he was pushing back his album we're going to discuss his beefs his rise to the top and we're going to discuss if he was truly on the path to Greatness let's [Applause] begin what up guys Ali here and welcome to Al talk music add me on Instagram at Ali talk music as well and don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification Bell now let's get into the [Music] video J Electronica was born around 1976 and was raised in New Orleans from a young age Jay always aspired to be a rapper and when he was about 10 he began working on his flow and said that he was inspired by L C J additionally he also Drew inspiration from ra Kim and other New Orleans Hometown Heroes like soldier Slim by the time he was 19 years old Jay decided to leave New Orleans after the murder of his best friend and Jay talks about this more in depth in his mixtape on a skit called departure got his got in the during this time period Jay was living a very nomadic lifestyle migrating between Atlanta New York Detroit and Baltimore as well as other cities now while Jay was in Atlanta he managed to get a job in a kitchen at Morris Brown College however he was not making enough money to pay the rent they didn't have a covenant House in Atlanta so I ended up homeless things got so bad for Jay Electronica that he would sleep in a park a train station or basically any place that provided him safety I remember having this overwhelming fear of how is my life going to turn out he then says then I realized that I was was becoming a man after spending time in Atlanta he bounced around to New York Denver Dallas Washington DC Baltimore and Philadelphia and in every city he was in he made sure to absorb the culture and take part in the hip-hop scene eventually he moved out to Detroit where he worked with producer Jay Dilla and d12's own con artist also known as Mr Porter I met Diller in Detroit um through denan Porter Mr Porter from D12 he's he he's probably most known as that but he's a producer uh and he's he's done he's working with a lot of but but anyway yeah yeah uh him and a brother of mine Johnny and Mike chavaria they introduced me to Diller they were building his Studio at the time I think he had just signed what what MCA had gave him a deal or something they gave him like $300,000 to build a studio for because he wanted to work at in Detroit he didn't want to leave uh so I met him during that time period when he was building the studio and you know I started I started doing some stuff on his music you know we we never we never actually had a chance to work together because you know I I left Detroit and then at the time when we were supposed to start working you know he had he got ill and he passed away but you know that's that's how I met him but I don't but you still have you have tracks that you spit over beat and I got we we got I got I got like a thousand Diller beats like like we I I I like I like I like Dill's are y are y y'all y'all familiar with Jay Diller okay okay okay okay okay okay yeah yeah yeah Dill Diller he's amazing you know what I'm saying now before getting to Detroit he dropped a mixtape called The Awakening it managed to get him some buzz but it was his time in Detroit that really formed the rapper that we know [Music] today then out of nowhere around 2004 J Electronica begins dating Erica Badu and you know what people say about Erica Badu once you look in her eyes it's over plenty of high-profile rappers have fallen victim to Miss Erica Badu we're talking common Andre 3000 Jay himself and these are names that just popped in my head so yeah Erica Buu has quite the reputation for hooking up with high-profile rappers and having babies with them so yeah in 2004 Erica Badu and Jay Electronica became a thing and it was also during this time that Jay dropped songs on MySpace during this year he dropped songs like retro Electro and something to hold on to displaying both his lyrical skills and his ability to pay attention to what's going on in the public and putting that in the [Music] music he also drops songs like so what you saying and girlfriend which contributed to his growing reputation it seems like J Electronica was on fire at this point point because the source featured them in their magazine in the unsigned hype column so while Jay was not a big name yet he was earning his stripes and beginning to get recognized by the public now just as Jay was gaining recognition from the public and other major platforms he was also gaining recognition from his significant other Eric abadu in 2005 Eric abadu began her own record label one called control freak my new label control freak seeks to show artists how to run their own labels we want to free both the slaves and the slave masters now you know what happens when you start to date someone and then all of a sudden you can't stop thinking about them they're in your mind all the time you want to call you want to text you want to be with them all the time you know then after spending more and more time with them you're like I like her or I like him I like her so much that I want to make her life better this is exactly what happened between Erica Badu and and J Electronica Erica Badu cared about J Electronica so much that she began her label control freak specifically to sign Jay Electronica Jay is the reason I wanted to do the label he's an incredible poet an incredible artist and a peculiarly intellectual MC so Jay was the first act to sign to Erica Badu's label Erica was simply looking out for her man and in the process she discovered a very lucrative business idea just heard Erica's album and I was surprised to not see a feature from you on it do you guys purposely try to keep personal and and music separate I mean we got we we do things we collect we we we we bounce ideas off each other you know we got little pieces of music that we done done together ideas that we shoot around you know what I'm saying but that's soon to come you know what I'm saying like we at the same time I know I know that too that like if if if if if if me and Erica did something people going to put the magnifying glass on that you know what I'm saying so we you know we we rather it happen naturally than to force it just because you know what I'm saying like just because because my dad is stepen Spielberg I'm going to make a movie with my dad you know what I'm saying you what I'm saying it's it's better for a good movie to come you know what I'm saying then then to just force one because of a circumstance now usually I would say something like what a lucky guy you know Erica didn't have to do that but I think she was doing whatever she could to support her man however I've learned firsthand that once a woman feels like she owns you it's over bro after a while she begins to lose respect begins to see you as lesser than and before long she's kicking you to the curb so yeah as far as business goes Jay made the right move to sign Erica Badu Erica was already a well known artist with connections but on a relationship level Jay might have lost a few points when he signed to his girl you just back me up you just back don't make me embarrass don't make me embarrass you on this live Erica just back me up and [ __ ] ain't nothing going on but the rent you don't even pay no damn rent you own your house y'all got your' seat belts on no can I BR ,000 seat belts please sure I pay P you right now put seat belt on TJ need TJ need a new TJ need new wheels on his motorcycle I got you TJ What El here you go right here look look look he about to [ __ ] his marriage up messing with all these white girls what else y'all want what else can I how much for sex a know how much for sex ER don't make me mad I'm about to hang up don't make me mad oh cuz you think you went to Hawaii and now you think your skin is pretty you ugly get your ugly ass off my goddamn camera how I hang this [ __ ] up now 2006 was a very slow year for Jay but around 2007 things began to pick up in this year he dropped the classic mixtape Act One Eternal Sunshine The Pledge now what made this mixtape so special is that it was not like other albums first of all the album had no drums and when I listen to hip-hop I can't wait for the drums to kick in so the fact that Jay Electronica pulled this off it's amazing City getv secondly the mixtape was not broken down into individual songs it was rather a 15minute experience consisting of one continuous track made up of five songs interestingly enough each song was sampled from the soundtrack Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind they also covered a range of themes from Hip Hop to Islam and to UFOs Erica abadu also made an appearance on the project so did just blaze and he earned a lot of respect from industry giants like Nas and Jay uh we just interviewed Jay Electronica at payd and he he had some great things to to say about you is there any chance that you guys are are going to hop on on a collaboration project or or or maybe just some songs or yeah you know J Electronica is definitely one of the guys is getting ready to come out there and Shake It Up I worked with him before plan to work with him a lot more at this point Jay's career was climbing he was Rising as a star and as he rose he began to notice one thing the fans kept wanting more music so he tooled together another 12T track collection of songs from his 2004 Detroit days called the style Wars EP in 2008 he kept dropping more music and dropped the compilation album attack of the Clones and he also joined the rock the bells tour that year now in that same year Nas dropped his album called Untitled he debuted number one on the billboard 200 and sold about 187,000 copies in its first week now if you look at the track list there are probably about 15 songs on the project but one of them called Queens get the money was produced by J Electronica hey yo Queens get the money [ __ ] still screaming Paper Chasing but presidential candidates is planning wars with other nations as The Story Goes Nas was so inspired by Jay Electronica's sound that he wanted Jay to produce the entire Untitled album for him now clearly that did not work out but Nas and Jay was still able to put things together for the song Queens get the money now because Jay and Nas were strongly Affiliated at this point people assumed that Jay was writing for Nas and honestly when I heard these rumors I was like no way like if I heard Nas had a Ghost Rider I think I would stop listening to Hip Hop luckily when these rumors came out J Electronica was one of the first people to deny these rumors actually we were we were uh at Electric Lady Studios I was visiting Erica she was U working on um new America and he was working on his album and Erica and uh kiss they know each other they were saying peace or whatever so when he was going leave I was like well I'm give Nas I had to the my world record I have the record called my world which is a Nas tribute in the studio when we were getting ready to leave I gave him a CD take this and listen to it it's a gift and he was like okay cool peace whatever blah blah blah and we left then like later that night it was like 3:00 in the morning I guess he was still in the studio he called he called Erica and Erica gave me the phone he was he was just like yo man you got some good Nas never has or never will need a Ghost Rider he's legendary his pen game is unquestionable now while Jay was rising in the ranks of Hip Hop it was at this point where his career began to slow down a little bit in an article by hip-hop DX J Electronica was named the most talked about MC last year but he was more of an urban legend than an actual rapper according to hip-hop DX despite this Jay kept dropping music not a lot of music but he dropped something he dropped the singles exhibit a and Exhibit C out of both of these songs Exhibit C has to be the standout track at least for me the song was produced by just blaze and sounds like something that Jay-Z would rap on around maybe 2002 or something in the rain without even a single slice of pizza to my name just blaze produced Exhibit C how did that track come about we was we we was in the studio we were supposed to be going to on the Angela e Morning Show the next morning and we didn't want to go up there without something to bring so we was trying to work on a record to bring so we did Exhibit C we did it in like 15 20 minutes and but it wasn't finished we fell asleep and we missed the show and all of that and then the next time I heard it again was when he played it on Tony touch and that's the story of EX the song feels like a classic and even though Jay isn't rapping super fast on the song if you listen to what he's actually saying it's full of substance and that's one thing Jay Electronica brings every single time he drops a track now Exhibit C also made it to some charts it was also remixed by rappers like Saigon and Joel Oz proving that Jay had songs that other rappers respected in addition Jay welcomed his first daughter with Erica Badu although the pair broke it off later that year now while Jay's personal life and relationship life was changing so was his standing with the public he may not have realized it back then but even though he had a huge interest from the public some people were beginning to off now I've heard a lot of people say that Kendrick Lamar took Jay's spot I guess because both artists can rap about anything they're both lyrical so people naturally put them in the same category now the one major difference between Kendrick and Jay is that Kendrick actually puts out music Kendrick may not drop two albums a year like Drake but he doesn't need to because the fans know that Kendrick right now is taking his time to create the perfect project you know when Kendrick keeps his fans waiting we know that we are about to get something something Monumental whereas Jay he just keeps the fans waiting and instead of dropping a song that people may appreciate after all this time he might just drop a song that he recorded in 2004 now 2009 was a very interesting year because it was during this year that currency most death and J Electronica formed a group called center edge territory it all began when currency a native of New Orleans stepped into Damon Dash's studio called DD 172 the DD obviously stands for Damon Dash and the 172 stands for the address of the building in New York while currency was a DD 172 he met up with J Electronica for the first time and they clicked and then there was most def who also knew currency for about a day but despite this these three rappers bonded and began making plans to take on the hip-hop game together most def then came up with a name for the group and despite being artists with several Connections in the game the group decided to avoid major labels and go independent and they quickly began working on songs they supposedly recorded about six songs together and one of these songs appeared on currency's album Pilot Talk in the form of the day the over such excellent moment so at this point in time these three artists were very serious about dropping an album however most def and J Electronica were not known to be present in the media all the time they would shy away from public appearances interviews and it seems like those artists specifically most deaf and J Electronica did things according to their own schedule so it came at no surprise when the center age territory album did not come out now despite this Jay kept working on his own career and kept doing performances at this point he didn't have a huge catalog of music but he still had loyal fans that would go to his shows and show him support now there also around this time that Jay announced that his album was going to come out on his birthday September 19th this got fans hyped waiting for his album to drop Jay kept teasing the album All Year promising the album would blow expectations out of the water but after teasing his fans for time and time again Jay did not drop the album and once again his fans were disappointed and even though Jay had just broken a promise things were still looking up for the man because around November of 2010 he signed with Jay-Z's record label Rock Nation the signing took place at a very strange event that kind of looked like a club Jay said a few things about Jay Electronica and Jay performed a few bars from Exhibit C and at this point you could not deny his presence because all his work was finally paying off and he was standing next to Jay-Z now in terms of music releases Jay didn't drop much in 2010 he dropped a mixtape called Victory but apart from that his musical releases were very sparse then in 2011 Diddy enters the picture now the thing is before Jay signed Rock Nation there was a bidding war that took place for him as an artist Diddy was currently in the running to sign jay but Jay chose to sign with Rock Nation and this supposedly upset Diddy Diddy then posted a very ambiguous and emotional tweet on social media and the thing is this tweet was dropped right after Jay signed to Rock Nation which made many people believe that Diddy was talking about Jay the situation seemed to be so obvious that even Jay's ex-girlfriend Erica bardu tweeted an apology to pu daddy now of course Diddy didn't directly engage with Jay Electronica he was very subliminal but this caused Jay to finally say something to Diddy betrayal is a serious allegation brother real talk I ain't going to be holding my tongue if you're going to be out here emotional and Reckless with it whatever happened to congratulations black man I'm happy for you now Diddy quickly learned what Jay was saying about him in public and decided to say something to Jay before we start the week off with rumors I am not mad at Jay-Z I am not mad at anyone Jay-Z was not the friend I was referring to to be clear at J Electronica I'm proud of you I'm happy for you I love you I congratulate you I'm not mad at you so it seems that this is all Jay needed to hear because after this he made peace with Diddy by tweeting the following thank you black man now let's go # no ass nness in 2011 let's go now after the signing Jay began a ridiculously long and overly delayed quest to never release his debut album and the fans were beginning to notice a trend so check this out before he signed to JayZ Jay announced on Shade 45 that he would be dropping his debut album act two on Christmas Day for context this was just after Exhibit C dropped and took off so at this point he was clearly trying to ride the wave of that one track but nonetheless just blaze shut down the release date on Twitter and the fans were once again waiting for Jay's debut album to drop fast forward to almost a year later Jay announces that the album is coming out on his birthday and on November 12th Jay announced that he was signing to Jay-Z and Rock Nation then just days later Jay dropped the announcement and his collaboration with the legend Jay-Z on shiny suit Theory envelope the results of my Insanity across the line real life and fanty he also collaborated with Jay call most deatha and reflection Eternal nonetheless Jay kept the excitement going for his new album and around March of 2011 a video dropped on YouTube titled the MI king of Act 2 which saw Jay recording music in Johannesburg South Africa you actually have the second [Music] worst after this fans went crazy speculating when the album would drop and around July of 2011 Jay took to Twitter to announce that his album was finally done according to him Erica I do heard it so did Bun B and so did Jay-Z he also shared his desire to drop a song called road to predition which features Jay-Z during this time he dropped another memorable verse on builds close your eyes with Lucy L but once again the single missed the charts have you ever had that feeling like you been falling for weeks in a well I was on the verge of dying like ET in the ball spot of the Forest right next to the speak spell now this is unfortunately where the album seem to start every time time someone on his team was asked to speak about the project they would completely Dodge the question and eventually people began to wonder whether the album was going to come out or not so by March of 2012 there was news that Jay-Z had the complete J Electro album and that it was his favorite album of 2012 however it lacked a single now this kind of reminds me of what happened to jcole when he was entering the game when jcole came in he dropped a lot of mixtapes and people were feeling his sound but he was not exactly making commercially viable songs then when it came time to drop his debut album he felt the pressure from Jay to create a hot single and in doing so he came up with the song workout now don't get me wrong this is a very hot song But even jcole says it himself that he forced it and he was simply doing it to get radio play I'm like cooking up for months and months trying like man and and I finally get something I'm like yo this is going to kill I'm like ecstatic about this record cuz I feel like I finally beat the game you know what I mean and that was workout so I get a release date and we dro the single it was the worst response on any song I've you got to understand that like to my fan base it's like yo that's the chosen one so when they heard that song it threw him off to add insult to injury that being the worst response ever I get a call from no ID and Not only was he just like man why did y'all go with that he was like man I'm going tell you the truth I was with n man and N was talking about you man like why did he do that when he told me that it hurt now let's look at someone like Jay Electro who's known to be very rugged underground and Lal do you see someone like that dropping a song like workout probably not and that's the thing Jay Electro is not the type of guy that compromises his sound to please the public this hurts him because without dropping a commercial song He's reducing his visibility in the public but it also helps him because the fans believe he's staying true to his sound so yes I can see Jay's album being delayed because it didn't have a hot single because Jay Co was also in a very similar position I got an odore story too was that real quick 2011 I was in London for Gumball I've in the club it's like 12 at night and I get a DM on Twitter from J Electronica like you in he's like you in town I'm like yeah I'm enti like yo I'm going to the studio later why don't you come and meet me I was like cool he s right I'm have the is going to come and pick you up about 5:00 I'm like in the morning yeah like yeah so the car come and pick me up in London we go out to Siri takes about an hour to get there English Countryside I pull up to Studio this building sitting in the car for like 20 minutes he pulls up about 6:15 620 we go in and he's like let's just watch the sunrise o right and it's the the it's Phil Collins's old studio and it's on a farm so he's like you see goats and cows some [ __ ] I need some wine or something and then and then we prayed and then he played me an entire out this is in 2011 yeah he played me an entire album and I'm sitting there I'm like getting overwhelmed by all this music and I'm dead tired because I ain't want to sleep and I gotta be back in London in the car ready to drive at 10 o'clock so he was like what you think oh I said right thisen and I'll be hon it was some of the greatest music i' ever heard at the time and he was like which one you want to rap on I said man I a even got there I'm not even I'm not even in the frame of my the band and I said I'll be honest I don't know which one of these [ __ ] need me like all of this music is amazing now in 2012 Jay-Z himself spoke about the situation and according to him the album was incomplete and Jay Electro was doing things according to his own time I love that I want to support that sort of energy I want people to be creative and not traditional not just a single at this time this time and this time you know he operates at his own time but the album is really close it's exactly what it should be it's amazing him as a Lyricist is almost scary he's scary good meanwhile Jay became the center of yet another and this time far bigger celebrity scandal chains began to wag and rumors started flying after the daily mayil reported that Kate Goldsmith a Roth's child and her husband Ben Goldsmith were actually getting a divorce over an alleged Affair between Kate and Jay Electronica allegedly Ben found explicit texts and emails between Kate and Jay this is what Ben had to say about the matter she Kate is obsessed with this chap called Jay Electronica who is one of her clients she's always on the phone to him and out with him until 4:00 or 5 in the morning most nights sometimes she even stays with with him now they were very bold about their affection for one another and many assumed that they were just friends around May of 2012 Jay tweeted at Kate Roundtable and watch the helicopter tour and this tweet was accompanied by a photo of Kate in a helicopter in which she retweeted nothing too scandalous now apparently the pair had known each other for years and Kate was actually involved in the music industry Kate was a producer and later became the owner of Roundtable Rec records a label she set up around 2010 and signed J2 after this their relationship evolved and allegedly their Affair lasted at least a year before Ben found out Kate then split from her husband and she went on to say very disparaging things about him on social media as for Jay Electro she went on to praise him by saying as for Jay Electronica he saved my life in many ways and I am eternally grateful to him and hope that I can repay him by helping him as his manager and friend I won't lie the first time I heard about Jay and a Roth's child I was like Jay must be packing a lot of material in boxes each time he moves if you know what I mean cuz how the hell did he get a Roth's child without even dropping an album bro that's some sorcery right there so after the divorce between Kate and Ben the love between Jay Electro and Kate grew even more Jay eventually moved out to England to be closer to her and this is probably another reason why his album got delayed you know instead of tearing down the charts Jay was too busy tearing down marriages he got to rub shoulders with the elite of the banking world that only lasted for about 2 years and then he broke up with Kate so in a way it's almost like Jay used her for her connections and she used him to install new pipes in her sewage system now according to the couple the reason why they broke up is because they were incompatible Kate was an arys with three small children while Jay had spent years as a nomad and had been signed to a major label for 4 years without dropping an album they were just on two opposite ends of the spectrum and after a while Jay returned to the US and eventually the relationship crumbled now around 2012 shortly after his affair with Kate Went public Jay took to Twitter to post the track list of his upcoming album the album was set to feature Jay-Z as well as two tracks with Kanye and even one with Diddy unfortunately J Electra quickly deleted the post and for a short while he stopped promoting his album however about a month later while performing at Jay-Z's madeen America Festival J Electro announced that his upcoming album was in the mixing stages and that his first single would feature Chris Brown now if Chris Brown was on J Electronica single then it's clear that Jay Electronica was trying to make a song that impacts the radio now in an attempt to have peas his fan base Jay dropped another compilation album titled what the is a Jay Electronica running withr plus I'm a sniper one with the dice one with the m and nobody now at this point in his career J Electro had made headlines time and time again but it wasn't around till 2013 that he truly caught the attention of the public first of all Jay Electro had a song with MC Miller he appeared in the song suplexes inside of complexes and duplexes my milk and honey sh my cerella and herri by the however it was his verse in Big Sean's control that truly shook the hip-hop world or did [Music] it if you listen to the song J Electro had a very dope verse on it he was dropping balls that would usually go over people's heads and they did however even though J Electro dropped a very dope verse on the song he could not compete with Kendrick calling out every rapper it was at this point that people began to believe that Kendrick stole Jay's spot but let's be real Jay was not even fighting for that spot to begin with now when I heard control for the first time I was blown away by Kendrick's verse like I always knew Kendrick was talented but I did not expect him to go other MC's like that so when he did I was like Wow Kendrick is here not to play any games I'm I'm the king of New York King of the co one hand I now big sea did his thing on the song too and if you've been paying attention to Big Sean's music over the years you can tell that this is one of his best verses ever however Kendrick's verse was just too Fierce and his delivery was just too aggressive for anybody to stand next to him which brings me to J Electro now I won't lie the first time I heard this song I didn't even know Jay Electro was on it like I would stop the song right after Kendrick's verse rewind it play Big Sean's pot and Kendrick's pot and that's it now I've spoken to a lot of people about this and they had the same experience as me even though Jay Electro dropped one of his best verses in his career not a lot of people remember that Jay was on the song to begin with now around July of 2013 Jay Electro got his fans heated up once again because after Jay-Z dropped Magna cot hly Grail J Electro tweeted the foll in okay now it's my turn let's go the next day he tweeted the title of the album act two the patents of nobility the turn about two months later just bra went on to talk about the album and this time he said the album was almost done Jay is just in his Zone and he's going to do it when he's ready I feel like the album needs a slight bit more touching up just in terms of like not that he needs more songs the reality of it is there's like like a couple of songs that maybe he needs to do a verse over on maybe a song or two that needs maybe a string Arrangement or something but for the most part the core of the album is there it's pretty much done now I've been paying attention to this hip-hop thing for a while and I've noticed that whenever an artist is not dropping their album it's not because the album is not done sometimes it is but rappers usually get their album delayed because the current climate won't receive their music maybe Rock thought that if they dropped a j Electro album without enough buzz it would flop because let's be real if the numbers showed that J Electro was about to sell 1 million copies in the first week his album would have come out a long time ago bad singles and all so in my opinion the reason why his album was delayed was because the climate was focusing on Drake Kendrick Cole Meek Mill Rick Ross and the lane that Jay Electro occupied was taken by Kendrick and Co whole so as 20133 came to a close J Electra remained in the shadows and his legacy was becoming defined by what he had not done as opposed to what he was doing for hip hop so in 2014 J Electro said some crazy things I we'll get to that in a moment so in this year Jay Electro got his fans hyped once again by promising to drop an album on July 12th according to him he was going to burst the heavens open and drop a magical album but guess what the album did not arrive now when I said that J Electro said some crazy things and this is what he had to say according to him he had the best verse in control and not Kendrick in fact according to him his verse came first followed by big sha and followed by Kendrick J Electro firmly said that he was not beefing with Kendrick however he believes his verse had more substance than Kendrick's and look you know Jay Electro might be right he might have the best verse on the song But seeing as most people stop listening to the song after Kendrick's verse even if he did have the best verse most people will never know so around March of that year Electronica teamed up with Jay-Z to drop a freestyle called we made it and this beat was used for Drake's joint of the same name the devil the haters the bloggers the papers the labels they label J Electro spoke about slavery black history and his verses were also laced with nods to the Nation of Islam and the 5% nation J elro even called himself the farahon of rap so clearly even without the album coming out J Electro felt like he was one of the top dogs in the rap game then around July J Electro finally told the public about why his album was not coming out while he was at the Brooklyn hip hop Festival he got a real about his struggles and he said that drug use threw a wrench in his career so at this moment it became very clear that J Electronica was battling demons and that's why his album was delayed time and time again now I do realize this was a huge struggle that J Electro was going through but it does make me draw comparisons to other rappers like whenever a rapper is going through a drug phase it usually happens after they make it or after they drop their debut album a rapper will drop one solid classic album and then get on drugs but because they know they have hits they're core fans will always be there with J Electro it happened the other way around he got on drugs before he dropped his Monument to album and to me that's just working backwards Jay Electro then dropped a song called better in tune with the infinite and this was posted on his SoundCloud my feet might fail me my heart might a me the synagogues of Satan might accuse and jail me so this year wasn't very big for J Electro he somehow managed to keep himself in the conversations of the hip-hop audience But as time went on he was slowly starting to lose their patience and their watchful eyes um real quick content just really quick really quick J Electronica is he going to really drop his [Laughter] album so 2015 found Jay Electro in Nigeria reconnecting with his Heritage and exploring collaborations with local artists and then by summer Jay Electro was at it again during one of his shows in London Jay made a very audacious claim and called himself the god of Hip Hop he also went on to challenge his contemporaries like Drake and Cole he said the following at Drake he might be the sixth God but I am the god and then as far as J Cole goes J Electro said this I'm sorry but jco don't got bars like this now I understand what Jay Electro was trying to do he was trying to do that how to rob thing and put himself in the conversation with his [Music] peers nearest at however in my opinion Drake and J Cole were light years ahead of J Electro and that's simply because they were actually dropping projects nearly every year whereas Jay lecture was talking about that one album that he was going to drop that one album that would change the game but where was it so to me it makes no sense as to why J Electra would even think about going at Drake and jcole does Jay's music have more substance than Drake's yes but what's the point of creating art if nobody's going to see it now around late 2015 just blaze got to talk about the album once again and he told the fans that he had no updates on the project however he did have an almost complete version of the album on his phone by October of 2015 it was beginning to feel like fans may never hear new music from Jay and then during a performance One Night in New York Jay jokingly said that he was going to scrap the album I was just backstage talking about that with Jason goldwatch we were talking about the delete button now this news confused a lot of people because was Jay really about to throw away 5 years of work just to start again and if he did start over how many more years would that album take another five another 10 how much more waiting did the fans have to do so 2015 was not that Monumental for Jay so he decided to stir up some drama amongst his peers around February of 2016 Jay decided to broadcast live via Periscope and he had some Choice words for Kendrick and 50 Cent about 50 he said 50 Cent at once he was a good rapper right now he got the potential to be a rapper but he's on some sucker [ __ ] and we will slap 50 cents eyeballs loose out his sculp now while he was on live one of Jay Electro's fans asked Jay to play some Kendrick music in the car and this caused Jay Electro to go on a mini TI raid against Kendrick to put it bluntly he said f that Kendrick would tell you himself he could not body Me Kendrick is my son Kendrick is my baby Kendrick wishes he could be me now I could say a lot about this but let me just compare this to the guy who plays Home Alone maau kin now when maau kulin was growing up he was sort of pressured in into acting by his father who wanted to be an actor himself so his father was essentially a failed actor that could not realize his full potential so when mcau Calin made Home Alone he became one of the biggest stars in the world and ultimately became even bigger than his father so if Kendrick is Jay Electro's son Kendrick is mcau culin and J Electro is the father that wanted the top spot but could never make it like his son kit started off as a child actor unfortunately that's as far as he ever got got because his plans to be a famous actor never materialized moli actually admitted that this was a huge cause of his dad's awful Behavior he explained everything he tried to do in life I excelled at before I was 10 years old then J lecture went on to talk about Kendrick's control once more and said that even though people were hyped about Kendrick's verse Kendrick didn't really say anything throughout it now while Kendrick did not immediately comment 50 who's never want to shy away from a beef threw some shade on IG and claimed he didn't even know who Jay Electro was now at this point Kendrick did not need to say anything he stood up and brought home five gramys but Jay was hellbent on war and he dropped the track # TBE the curse of Mayweather taking shots again at both 50 and Kendrick this is blasphemy James this is blasphemy I gave that little [ __ ] life and he blasted me [ __ ] made all those M and he laugh at me now those lines were directed at 50 he also said 11 nomin so clearly J Electro was very salty because this is a very strange Flex because remember when Jay Electro was going to sign to Rock Nation and then didd he said something about it Jay Electra was quoted as saying what happened to congratulations black man I'm happy for you in addition to the song Jay also tweeted the following message ain't nobody safe no more either you with me or against me at 50 sent don't lie to the people you know me don't make me expose you as a coward then about a month later Kendrick quietly dissed J Electro on a Swiss beats track on untitled' 07 2014 to 2016 Kendrick RS before you step out line and dance withar I never so with these bosss Kendrick pointed out the obvious it seems like Jay Electro had a lot of potential but his career was not really taking shape So eventually this little tension between Kendrick and J Electro faded away and J Electro eventually apologized for his remarks but it seems like Jay Electro was not done with TDE just yet because eventually Jay was hit by another bar This Time by ab soul on the album do what thou Wilt episode takes shots at Jay on the track [Music] raw figz wouldn't admit that he would body him for a mil according to ab soul this is why he DED Jay Jay Electronica made some remarks that bothered me a lot I told Kendrick immediately he was about to go up and get his Grammys it was a big time for us all and for Jay to come out and do that at that time that really rubbed me the wrong way so I spoke on it immediately I know he put out a public apology as well so I know he knows why I said what I said that's one of the black Gods so it's still peace now the beef did not escalate past that point and if eventually the topic blew over on its own just like that the fans were back to waiting for J Electro's debut album so around 2017 there was more talk about this album and Jay-Z put Jay Electro on the spot in front of thousands of fans while hosting a title show in New Orleans Jay announced in front of a bunch of fans that it was time to put out the album but guess what it didn't come out they went on to say an album is a false concept anyway an album is something that was Creed by corporations as a product to make money that could have been my answer jcole you know obviously I yes very dope and um J Electronica very very dope too he said he's up next we're waiting that's like detox let's hope not when Jay was directly asked about when his album would drop there were times when he became aggressive and you could tell that he was tired of people asking him that question now I won't lie this is around the time that Jay Electro began to lose me as a fan I know that some rappers might be very critical of their work and they want to make sure that it's perfect before they put it out but there's no way an album should take longer than a year to create unless you're trying to make a classic but even then if you're someone like Kendrick you can take a year off because people know the product is going to be quality when it comes out Jay on the other hand had not proven anything so making his fans wait this long for a project that may or may not be hot it just sounds crazy crazy to me crazy so in this year he dropped a rare single called letter to felon and then in 2018 Jay began to stir the pot of drama once again so in 2018 Eminem dropped killshot which was one of the best dist tracks of the 2010s Eminem proved that even at 50 years old he could still take on younger opponents he demolished MGK with adverse but for some reason Jay took offense remember that line where Eminem accuses Diddy of taking out Pac let's just say J Electro did not like this out hit ad he put the out Eminem how dare you accuse Diddy of killing Tupac while you completely look past Jimmy IV and those who profited from his death the most you best trade carefully son before I come to tear your Ivory Tower down like Sul man done the Templar knights now M did not really respond to J Electro I mean why respond to someone who has no album right but even though M was not offended Roy the 59 took offense to this and had some Choice words for J Electro on social media I dare one of you to write something I'mma light your ass up like a jack on a lantern mind your business now even though he didn't mention Jay by name it's clear that Roy was talking about him after this Jay deleted his Twitter and after this he went back to working on his album so around 2018 Jay dropped another single this time it was another version of shiny suit Theory it featured Jay-Z and the dream and was supposed to be the leading single of his debut album it takes a lot to shock but you being so prosperous is preposterous now the single didn't chart but he also featured on Pooh Bear's hard to Face Reality with Justin Bieber as well as Rosie Lowe's the way around 2019 neither song was successful so 2019 was pretty similar to other years he promised that he would drop an album in fact this time he said he would drop one with JayZ in fact when he announced his album with Jay-Z I'm sure most people were like this album is never going to come out so I'm not going to pay any attention to this at least that's how I was thinking also during this year Nas biged J Electronica up and said that he wanted to work with him and that goes to show you that even though J Electronica was not dropping much music he was still respected in the genre J Electronica hit me he was like yo I actually wrote with n before you know what saying when I said n over J Electronica and then came 2020 and 2020 was a very good year for Jay Electronica on March 13th 2020 Jay finally dropped his debut album titled a written testimony the album was announced just a month before on Twitter and he revealed that he took him 40 days to record it that's why I build my temple like Solomon in the desert the Lord is my rock I speed and I won't lie when he said this I was like okay it took you 40 days to record this album but seeing as you've been keeping us waiting for about 10 years and there are about 365 days in the year that means the fans waited more than 3,650 days for this album to come out and it only took him 40 days to record the whole thing and you know I consider myself a patient man but I'm not that patient and I'm not waiting for 4,000 days for an album from any artist unless they're already established like a Jay-Z Kanye Eminem you know these artists have already proven that they can drop solid albums so their projects are worth the wait but waiting over 10 years for a debut album to me sounds crazy it's insane but I won't lie a written testimony is actually a very good album it plays number 12 on the billboard 200 and sold about 31,000 copies in the first week additionally Jay-Z appears in about seven songs so when J Electronica was talking about dropping an album with Jay-Z this is probably the album he was talking about the album also featured the dream and Travis Scott and was nominated for the best rap album category at the 2021 Grammy Awards needless to say he did not win now despite the Half Baked success of the album J actually experienced a lot of controversy after it came out this was because Jay a registered member of the nation of Islam and a very strong supporter of Louis farakhan was accused of anti-Semitism also Joe Buton went in on J Electronica and you could tell the man was not satisfied with the album that came out for the last decade y'all have mentioned J with Hove and J positions himself that way un arguably one of the greatest tracks ever on Exhibit C that is God level rhyming hate is my underwhelmed for me to say I'm underwhelmed I didn't go into it expecting anything J Electronica album All right so we wna go track for track debatable yeah very much debatable that this would be does this count as a debut J electronic Alum absolutely not I agree it does not count as a debut absolutely not album yeah this is not a debut I'm sorry what it's not a debutt it's a debutt it's not a debutt problem number one before you even get to the amazing job that hold my it done on that verse problem number one for me here if this is your debut you have to start it you I'm with you you that's that's a rule I'm trying to think of anybody has ever started that's a rule this is hate but it's rapper hate because when y'all move the gold post as a rapper I see it and for the last decade y'all have mentioned J with hve I certainly hav't I y'all I'm not telling y okay and JL positioned himself that way uh on arguably one of the greatest tracks ever with Exhibit C yeah that is God level rhyming and the uh album he did with all the Eternal um the Eternal Sunshine Jim Cary yeah that was God level rapping and Commercial capitalism at is fine and shouting out all of the people that all right if you got that cosign then it supports what my ears are hearing and then you disappeared for a while and we left him there then a fan responded to Joe Buton and said the following Joe Buton hasn't dropped a classic in his life and his critiquing jet Electronica and ho button then responded to the fan by saying the following I never got absolutely mopped around on my own project either Jay then responded and said I never heard your albums bro may Allah bless your career as a journalist now for the most part it seems like Joe bernon was upset because there was too much Jay-Z on J Electronica's project so it almost felt like a collaboration album instead of a solo project Joe then said to J I took you off yours and it's a ho mixtape now peace be onto you as well king after that jlex stopped debating with Buton and simply tweeted make sure y'all give me my credit for lighting up that next podcast episode to # Drake is my spirit animal even when he signed with Jay I was like why is he doing that but all right maybe you know there's not a single song by uh single song by The Producers on this are Swiss beats Hit Boy uh aab music Alchemist no ID and crang Bin I'm not familiar with that guy but um then when I'm hearing Jay-Z on every song now again Jay-Z is one of my favorite rappers so how do you take two of my favorite rappers put them together and they make something that is not crazy to me like it just I enjoyed Jay you know going in his conscious bag we hear that from time to time but but I just feel like he didn't need to be on every song now since then jayac has kept dropping music and around October of 2020 he dropped the album act two patents of nobility the turn it came out days after it was leaked and it completely missed the charts so after 10 years of waiting for this project it finally came out and to be honest it largely went unnoticed it seems like even though Jay Electronica fans were patiently waiting for this album the vast majority of the public had moved on from J laac and that's simply because he took too long to drop a project so what did Jay Le do to make up for this he kept dropping music in fact around 2021 he appeared on Kanye's album D on two tracks Jesus Lord and Jesus Lord part two the former track performed very well and became the peak of Jay's charting career in that same year he also appeared on Westside guns free cutter then around 2022 things got very interesting for the man this time Jay got into it with the controversial Music Manager wack 100 it all began when wack was in clubhouse where he asked what happened to the money raised by the 1995 Million Man March Jay then clapped back hard on Twitter saying keep my nation's name out youring mouth at wack 100 if you got questions ask me don't be stunting on our brother press me about the Nation of Islam if you want that smoke he also went an IG and told wack 100 to sit down and shut his ass up now of course wack 100 had to respond and he said you're nobody to ask I asked the man in front of me had brother Ben X and he answered the question I've never known the Nation of Islam to duck a question that's what they're there for to educate am I not right you strike back with anger because of black black man asked another black man a question to gain understanding you're fresh out of Ramadan with this Behavior with this attitude poor representation of what this movement stands for now when J Electronica was not causing controversy he was still trying to push his career and this year he teased the release of a new album possibly titled bismal boys as to when that album is coming out who knows in essence J Electronica is a very dope rapper with only a couple of songs he was able to gain the respect of people like Nas Jay Diddy and people were even calling the man a god level MC however I think his falling off is pretty much self-imposed because while his peers were dropping album after album single after H single Jay was continuously talking about the album he was going to drop and at the end of the day he sounded like that friend who said he was going to start a business but never does you know after a while you're going to be like okay I can take this Guy seriously and that's essentially what happened to J laak by pushing his album further and further away he lost the respect of many fans and if he had just dropped the album when he was at his Peak he would probably be a bigger artist than he is today that being said he's still a very good Lyricist he's still a very dope rapper and if he drops an album I'm probably going to listen to it but at the same time I'm not going to sit around and wait for this album to come out because as they say life goes on on Spotify he has about 8 9,000 monthly listeners and his most listened to songs are fruits of the spirit Exhibit C and red showing up tonight they'll love me even more J Electronica is just like a very unique person but um yeah it was a crazy night but day Electronica I just feel like um you know I think as an artist sometimes it's hard to put out projects I feel like every time he's put out a project he was like to even like the song Exhibit C the way that even came out wasn't him finishing the song and putting it out intentionally it was just blaze right being like let's Let it Fly you know and with Tony touch and so with him I just feel like he gets inspired to do stuff when he feels like doing it and then sometimes it's hard to share your music because of how people are like whe whether you have a Blog whether you have a website whether you make music whether you Chef whether you're artist visual artist whether you're a mechanic stop running to these multi-billion dollar Corporation capitalist American [ __ ] they don't know what they doing the country listen listen listen if we in a recession if they say the state of the country is bad then that means that the people who are in leadership positions all over the country whether it's in art whether it's in politics agriculture whatever is in if we're in a bad place as a country that means that the leaders are in a bad place they making bad decisions so I feel you it's on us it's on us to take this thing in the right direction that's it for me it's your boy Ali what happened to J Le in your opinion let me know down below also add me on Instagram at Ali talk music till next time peace
