Written by Cedric Muhammad:
The subject of Jay Electronica, the time of his rise, and his prospects for underground, independent and commercial success, even geopolitical impact, are potentially serious.
Sometimes you can hurt someone unintentionally by saying too much. And sometimes the greatest form of humility is not telling all that you know or see on a subject.
But sometimes, time demands that you take a chance and risk what needs to be risked in order to accomplish a greater good.
To say that Jay Electronica, creatively, stands between two worlds and eras would not be an exaggeration, if you know the time.
Jay Electronica, the man of the hour, humble and spiritually sensitive is feeling this more deeply than anyone, I’m sure, in answer to a question of how his meteoric rise and the support and weight of it all feels, he reportedly said, “Its overwhelming, you know what I’m saying? Its overwhelming. It makes me feel good. But I gotta’ check myself too cause it makes me feel scared too. Like ‘okay I can’t be playing with these people’ because they are connecting with something — when they come to me — I feel like there is something they connected to greater that ain’t me, you know what I’m saying? So it makes me scared, too. And I don’t want to get in trouble with God. But yeah, its a good feeling, man. S**t, I can’t explain it. Its overwhelming.”
“Overwhelmed” and “scared” are two emotions most would not think the hottest rapper out would openly admit to. But Jay Electronica is not just ‘hot,’ he’s smart, and sober-minded, apparently realizing he understands there is always a price to pay for raising the dead.
“…And by the time they get their seats hot and deploy all their henchmen to come at me from the treetops…”
With that in mind I want to start an important conversation and start to take care of the important matter of fighting to properly position Jay Electronica for business and greater influence as an artist-leader-entrepreneur. The brilliant Tolu Olorunda, already has taken care of the proper, cultural interpretation of Jay Electronica in his AllHipHop.com editorial, Jay Electronica’s Exhibit C: The End of “Genetically-Modified” Hip-Hop?
He has the potential to go places no other artist has, ever, and just in time.
You can read the rest of the article at AllHipHop.com.
