Dre scrapped the expectation-bogged Detox for Compton, Jay Elec (mostly) starts fresh here. “From a hard place and a rock to the Roc Nation of Islam/I emerged on the wave that Tidal made to drop bombs,” he raps on “Ghost of Soulja Slim.” From this well of deep faith, he summons rap performances that seem to defy space-time. In just under 40 minutes, Jay Electronica erects monuments to Allah, NOI founder Elijah Muhammad, and Roc Nation overseer JAY-Z, who is at his side for nearly the entire album serving as sergeant-at-arms. But it’s also a record about the scrutiny of an insatiable public, one that leans on higher powers amid self-doubt. First and foremost, it is a prayerful offering that expresses the many spiritual and communal virtues he has internalized. It is a mystical, distinctive work that nearly lives up to all the lore surrounding the rapper. The wait for his debut album has been so long that it became more of an ancient prophecy than a movable release date.īut the album, A Written Testimony, has finally materialized. The selection of songs Jay Electronica has released over his career has drawn from all of this, only he’s put out as many of them in 13 years as some prolific rappers put out in a few months. The ghostwriting claims were disputed, he has never released a song with an original Dilla beat, and many count him as a footnote left in Kendrick’s wake, but he did actually end up between two of the wealthiest families in England. What was real and what was fiction began to blur, and what was real mattered less than what was interesting.
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