Mar 16, 2020

was just thinking about this after seeing Rosenberg's response. Then again as I was switching between listening to Jay Electronica and Lil Uzi Vert lol.

Don't know if anyone ever listened to Cilvaringz (Wu affiliate, dropped a few albums in the mid 00's) but that guy made blatantly anti-semitic music and was actually repellent. This is tame in comparison and the 5%er philosophy's always been a part of Jay's act. If anything I'd like to hear him dig deeper, hear him expand on this.

 

Mar 15, 2020

I really like the music. That will always be the deciding factor. I'm not going to let someone else religious beliefs obscure my vision. It'd be different if he was a peadophile or a r--ist.

The problem is with the listener if they are brainwashed into other people's ideals.

 

Mar 15, 2020

So Jay E is a known Nation of Islam / Hotep type, and this album reaffirms those beliefs in full. He expresses his fundamentalism in regards to end times prophecies, his regressive views of women, and the idea that jewish people are the devil. He echos several conspiracy theories recalling 240p Youtube vids made in Windows Movie Maker. Most people are familiar with some of this stuff through the 5%er era of acts like Wu-Tang or the Black Israelite skit from Kendrick's uncle, but I'm not sure the actual details of that belief system have ever been elucidated so thoroughly in music. Not on a stage like this anyway.

While hip-hop isn't exactly known for its moral compass, I think most people accurately sus out the characters rappers are channeling. Popular culture is no stranger to the violent renegade as a cool villain or anti-hero from mobsters to hitmen to thugs. Of course, that defense doesn't really work here given Jay E's history and likely sincerity. He also is looked at as a conscious or intellectual rapper as opposed to a street rapper whose ignorance (to progressive social values, not intelligence in general) is often excused. He's a grown man soap boxing an abhorrent world view.

So with that in mind, does that affect his music? Do you agree with what he's saying? Or is it just an extra dimension of his character you find interesting? Is it repellent?

 

Apr 24, 2020

5% ideology has always been a big part of Hip Hop. He's not the first, won't be the last. My issue with Jay Elec is his horrible work ethic. We waited a decade and a pandemic to hear Jay Z hold his hand through what should have been his first solo (or 5th depending on how many albums he'd release if he were into that sort of thing).

 

Mar 16, 2020

Tried to strip out commentary from the post above. I mean, I'm not going to defend the US or Israel on a foreign policy level. The women stuff is also perfectly innocent without the context of hotep stuff.

 

Mar 16, 2020

Jewish People

The synagogue of Satan want me to hang by my collar [01]

Satan struck Palestine with yet another mortar [08]

White People

Crushing the oyibo (white people) that try to bring wahala (trouble) [01]

America

Jay Electollah Flomeini (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran) mainly is support mainly
The fatwa (rule of law) he issued on al-Shayṭān (Great Satan: the United States) was delivered plainly [04]

End Times

It's the return of the Mahdi (the figure that defeats the anti-christ in revelations) [03]

I was born to lock horns with the Devil at the brink of the hereafter [04]

What a time we livin' in, just like the scripture says
Earthquakes, fires, and plagues, the resurrection of the dead [04]

It's the day of Qiyāmah (judgement day) [04]

It's the day of the judgment, fulfillment of the covenant [07]

I'm on a battlefield with the flag of my Lord [08]

The dry bones that lifted up from the valley dust [08]

Women

I treat my babies right, treat my ladies ladylike [05]

a--- shots and stripper poles for the eyes of my daughter [08]

Michael Jackson

They say it was gon' never happen
But I survived Neverland like the Jacksons
You never swallow slanderous lies for the devil's satisfaction
I still got my glitter gloves
I still got my glitter socks
Now I'm Moonwalkin' on your couch with many zippers on my jacket (On my jacket) [09]

 

Mar 15, 2020

He has a way of sometimes throwing those phrases in there to give his already esoteric style a dab more of mysticism. Can’t really tell if it’s done without context or if it’s deliberate, either way I try to not wrap my head around it although the discussion, like in this case, is very welcomed.

Rappers are piece of s----s more often than not, half the time they barely understand their own philosophies. Yet here we are still paying them mind.

 

Mar 15, 2020

I like the album. I think The Blinding into The Neverending Story is phenomenal. The whole project is so easy to get through. I don't think it's mindblowing taken as a whole. You can tell how quickly they put it together. I like the idea of the "get the gat" chorus but it sounds like a demo placeholder or something. Not enough real high points.

 

Mar 15, 2020

There's a line about his daughter seeing stripper poles and what not and another about taking care of or treating women the right way. Takes kind of an inference to how he feels about their role in society. The end times bars are plain spoken. The same s--- people I know believe in that earthquakes and natural disasters speak to biblical apocalypse or whatever. The jewish stuff got touched on by Peter Rosenberg and a guy from DJ Booth. He has a line on this and a line from years ago basically calling them devils.

It takes a bit of cobbling together, but he voices standard hotep stuff.

 

Mar 15, 2020

Most rappers hold views that I disagree with, so I generally grit my teeth and bear it otherwise there'd be no artists that I could listen to. I'm a fan of a lot of Nation of Islam affiliated rappers, so the 5% rhetoric on Written Testimony mostly washed over me through desensitisation.