A Few Words About The State Of Our Jay Electronica

In hip-hop, there’s a sense that out there within the ethereal boom-bap there lies in wait a rapper who’s on the cusp of being “the next big thing,” who can release a song that brings about a sea change in the type of rap that’s legitimately popular – we’re talking “radio” popular, as opposed to “sell out Cat’s Cradle” popular. One after another, dudes come along with talent, wit, and beats to back it up, yet inevitably fail to live up to the hype. Generally, I enjoy these rappers much more than, say, Soulja Boy, but on the other hand, these artists are yet to release a song nearly as catchy and awesome as “Turn My Swag On.”

Enter Jay Electronica, toting “Exhibit C,” the track that has become his calling card. This could (okay probably not but it’s fun to think so) be hip-hop’s paradigm shifter; hip-hop’s “Smells Like Teen Sprit.” It’s produced by Just Blaze, who offers easily his best work in years, a soaring soul sample that manages to knock while retain a certain elegance, and Jay raps hard without posturing. This is one of those songs that doubles as personal myth-building – in it, Jay alludes to being homeless, claims that an angel gave him his name, references Nicola Tesla and raps a few lines in Arabic because he’s a Five Percenter like that.



Pitchfork backhandedly claimed he was “the next Nas,” then contradicted themselves and implied that he was slightly better than Nas, which is obviously bullshit, mainly because the last rapper that Pitchfork anointed as the next big thing was Gucci Mane, but also because we don’t need another Nas. There already was one. He put out Illmatic. It was awesome. We have to move on from that – someone has to advance hip-hop from a position of popularity, and there’s just a shimmer of possibility that it could be Jay Electonica.

There is, however, an issue. Does dude have popular appeal? The hip-hop industry seems to like him; he has co-signs from pretty much everybody, including Diddy. But now that “Exhibit C” is finding itself on radio playlists, will it stay there?

Certain roommates of mine (cough, not mentioning any names) have questioned Mr. Electronica’s image, dubbing him a “hipster rapper.” Well, John Tyler Mills, in my opinion you are incorrect. First of all the term “hipster rapper” is meaningless, something that gets applied to rappers who neither want it nor have any use for it, as almost a way to deny them their masculinity and imply that they are somehow impotent because they don’t talk about how they sell drugs or murder people for fun, or can be used to denigrate a rapper based on his choice of dress, implying that he is seeking an overtly fashionable image, an accusation that's the last thing a rapper wants to face.

That definition is troubling, to say the least. What about rappers such as Gucci Mane and Freddie Gibbs, who don’t fit the “hipster rap” definition but are two of the very small group of rappers who consistently receive positive notes from “hipster” music sites like Pitchfork and The Fader? Or Jay-Z, who often speaks about his love for Grizzly Bear and is reported to have sought MGMT’s help for his most recent album? Or early rappers who emerged in the early nineties who count hipsters as a large part of their current audience? Certainly any of these rappers could be saddled with the term "hipster rapper" depending upon how you define it. If anything, the term “hipster rapper” should be applied to rappers who self-identify as hipsters and whose music often contains ironic or contrarian meanings, such as Das Racist. Das Racist are a bunch of hipster-ass motherfuckers. Here's a video for their newest song, which isn't nearly as good as the one about the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.