Does Jay Electronica's ideology impact how you feel about his music?

Started by Charlie Work, Mar 15, 2020, in Music Add to Reading List

  1. Charlie Work
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    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    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?
     
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  2. icecube
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    icecube West Coast is the Best Coast

    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.
     
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  3. Winter
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    Winter Super Comfy

    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.
     
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  4. Winter
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    Winter Super Comfy

    Mar 15, 2020
    Made me kinda uncomfortable when I heard Alchemist produced on the album though, given that Alc is Jewish. Wonder if he knew what his beat would be used for.
     
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  5. CityFan
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    Mar 15, 2020
    Album was boring. His religious fundamentalism makes it even worse.
     
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  6. DKC
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    DKC hank trill

    Mar 15, 2020
    I've only listened once so I can't say yet cuz I need to pay closer attention to the lyrics.

    Any specific examples you were thinking of @Charlie Work ?
     
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  7. Boos
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    Boos Nova Nation

    Mar 15, 2020
    Him and Rosenberg from hot 97 got into it on twitter about the synagogue of satan lines
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2020
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  8. JXY
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    JXY

    Mar 15, 2020
    Yeah it always baffled me how some knowledgeable people are also so stupid, regressive and have a feeling of superiority.

    Great post, I think every single hip hop media outlet is afraid to touch on this subject.
     
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  9. Zeugma
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    Zeugma thugger thugger my brother

    Mar 15, 2020
    I'd rather listen to someone ideologically different from most like Jay
    It doesn't really matter if I agree with him or not, I'm not voting for him. I like his music and his fundamentalism is a pretty huge part of it - that's absolutely fine! He's a great artist, always keeping it real
     
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  10. Charlie Work
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    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    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.
     
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  11. Charlie Work
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    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    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.
     
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  12. Fire Squad
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    Fire Squad Boss Don Biggavel

    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.
     
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  13. Sav Stanfield
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    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.
     
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  14. Charlie Work
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    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    Mar 16, 2020
    As long as we're talking about Elec's outrageous content on the album, he clearly defends Michael Jackson lol

    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)
     
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  15. Guma
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    Guma Dobry ruski, martwy ruski

    Mar 16, 2020
    He has clearly us vs them mentality/we can do no wrong mentality.
     
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  16. Guma
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    Guma Dobry ruski, martwy ruski

    Mar 16, 2020
    No lies found here. What he said about them and Israel is pretty much right. What did he say about women though?
     
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  17. Charlie Work
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    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    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]
     
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  18. Charlie Work
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    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    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.
     
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  19. Fire Squad
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    Fire Squad Boss Don Biggavel

    Mar 16, 2020
    Wanted to come back to this^. Sorta reminds me of what Nas used to do back in the day of spitting 5% knowledge despite never committing to the tenets, at least not like most of the what the Wu did. Jay's Je'ri album had that profoundly covered in some parts, this came to mind immediately:
     
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  20. Lil Squeed
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    Lil Squeed French Montana Stan

    Mar 16, 2020
    nah but his boring a--- sound does
     
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