So Jay Electronica has signed with some sort of Jay-Z affiliated label thing, which is supposed to be some sort of big affair, but probably means nothing. First off, I have never understood nor recognized the alleged greatness of Jay-Z. And at this point, he’s like adult contemporary rap at best. Like how long before he’s on American Idol or doing a duet with Rod Stewart? But secondly, I don’t understand why record label things still think in 2010 you can sign an artist, have years of hype, and then be successful. Shit is so immediate now. Somebody should’ve signed Jay Electronica last summer and has an album out with “Exhibit C” as the main single before that hype had died down. Shit man, dudes are recording 30,000 songs a week nowadays anyways. Record labels are on some weird shit. And yes, I guess dudes learn all the Jew trickery to making songs that are catchy even if they are forgettable (of which Eminem is a master at this point, a true craftsman of songs that sound like they are good but really are just like the last 19 songs he did, the Aerosmith of rap; Kanye is also excellent at this) and they run through pop channels and I guess somebody still makes money. I mean the redneck dude who lives in his mom’s basement next door to me (meaning across the field), he came home one time drunk as fuck pumping that Soulja Boy song. So shit transcends, if you’re lucky.
Still though, I feel bad for Jay Electronica, because dude is on some other shit, yet here he is in a world where music has become what it has become. Not to be a music blog blowhard on the standard stereotypical music blog blowhard tip, but you listen to some of his shit, and it’s like a Rakim for a new generation (okay, maybe not that strong) and you want him to be successful. But honestly, how long has it been since some real shit blew up massively in hip hop? Early ‘90s? It’s all disco synths and big money pretender, shiny suit syndrome gullied up a little bit. In fact, it immediately struck me as odd that the first song from this new era of Jay Electronica would be called “Shiny Suit Theory” because well just because. I haven’t listened to it, and probably won’t, because hearing Jay on a track with that other Jay dude is gonna bum me out, not so much because someone sold out, because god bless a motherfucker making money off his passion in this day and age, but because the soul gets squeezed out of shit a lot of times as it tries to find a profitable way to get paid off of passion. Look at all the dead souls who are hollow shells of what they once were, just to get a rep.
I struggle with this shit all the time too, as I try to refocus myself into cranking out a couple books a year. But on what? Fiction seems stupid to me, and a waste of real life time. I read what other people write (you know, the shit at the library) and it all seems so goddamned fake (which it is). And even if you power through and you do you, if it becomes something, then there is that hanging in front of you and everything you do.
Whatever though. Jay Electronica has been the shit the past couple years. He’s got a big face and is on some street intelligentsia awesomeness. Hopefully that soul shines through the grime of the world of the shiny suits instead of that world slowly smothering him into cameos on Rihanna songs.
STEAL “Dealing”
NEXT UP: Blue jean blues type shit, to be played with old drunk white people at an outdoor party around things that are on fire but not necessarily a bonfire!
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