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In a new move from A BATHING APE®, each month will see the release of BAPE® TAPE. Each edition
Good news for all the hip hop heads out there! After blessing us with a radio rip of the
I don’t exactly how I first heard about Jay Electronica but I suspect it might have been some small blog entry with maybe a sentence long description or maybe a recommendation from an achingly avant-garde hip friend of mine. Either way I have a disturbing small confession to make. I was almost immediately nonchalantly dismissive on the basis of name alone. I somehow began to conjure up images of loquacious word drunken nerd rappers who made what would be the hip hop equivalent of pretentious progressive rock. That is until I actually heard the man rhyme. I believe the first track I heard from him was the joint he did over the score to the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. Jay dismantled the drum less track with a crystal clear impeccable delivery and a cerebral assault on words mixing and matching abstract non sequiturs with a flow that can only be described as a much more coherent MF Doom.
I obviously wasn’t the only one floored by the 31 year old New Orleans native’s raw talent. Jay eventually caught the eye and ear of industry heavyweights such as Just Blaze, Erykah Badu and Nas amongst others who all have eventually collaborated with the MC all before he has even dropped an album. Although Jay has attracted the attention of several established artists his “do it yourself” ethics are obviously still intact as he pieces together clips from old films or old rock videos to provide a visual for his backing tracks. On “Drugs and Bitches” Jay spits a venomous attack at cliché conventional rap subject matter yet still keeping a self deprecating tone throughout. Needless to say I won’t be making any snap judgments again anytime soon.
