After an eternity, Jay Electronica returned to the music world this month with A Written Testimony. Covered in Jay-Z features and pidgin, the album is disjointed and thematically unclear. Like Dre’s Compton, the last album we waited 10 years for, it’s nothing like fans expected it to be. Unlike Compton, it’s not clear what took so long.
This is In Bars, where I’m going to take the “what is this about” parts of hip hop and explain them. Every album has a story to tell, you just have to look for it. In this case, the story of A Written Testimony has been 10 years in the making.
The Verse
For the purposes of this episode, I want to look at the story as a Q&A. A mystery. There’s one huge question that overshadows everything else on the record; that question being, “where have you been?” It’s impossible to discuss the album without discussing the terribly long wait.
Jay doesn’t shy away from the topic, with plenty of bars alluding to his air of mystery. At many points he treats his absence as virtuous, such as with the line, “the thing he need like a whole in his head is publicity” from “Ghost of Soulja Slim.” Later on, he uses it for a poignant punchline: “They say it was gon’ never happen, / But I survived Neverland like the Jacksons.”
Unfortunately, these aren’t satisfactory answers to the question at large. At best they’re playful teases. If you wanted Jay Elec to come out and say where he was, you weren’t going to get an answer to that. There are plenty of clues – the pidgin is a remnant of a trip to Nigeria, etc. The voluminous spiritual language also hints at Jay getting religiously in touch with himself.
The closest there is to a straightforward explanation comes on “The Blinding,” where Jay’s whole verse is essentially a cryptic, very Jay Electronica press release. Kicking off the verse with a reference to missing deadlines, Jay goes on to explain some fairly common struggles. Lack of self-esteem, the need to take care of family, and feeling too much pressure on himself.
These aren’t uncommon artistic struggles, so they seem to fall flat for explaining Jay’s extraordinary absence. However, understanding this gives us a filter to look at the rest of the album through.
The Messiah
Getting a half answer to one question naturally begs a couple more, and there are two more questions that make up the basic story here. The first of these questions is, “why is this so tough?” Plenty of other artists have dealt with these struggles, so why has it held Jay Electronica back.
The answer is all over the album, including in the aforementioned verse. “Bismillah,” Jay laments, “Just so y’all could pick me apart?” Getting picked apart for something is always tough, but the “Bismillah” shows Jay puts more weight on it. He’s speaking of his music not as an expression, but as a religious experience.
Jay’s spirituality is on full display throughout the record, with terminology and sounds littered throughout. He discusses the significant struggles of his youth and feeling blessed to be in his current situation. He describes himself as coming from the grave, and being pointed towards “the Sunnah.” This is powerful imagery because he gives it so much power.
I don’t think that Jay Electronica thinks he’s a messiah, but he’s certainly not afraid to relate. He relates his own life to Jesus Christ’s while thanking “Allah for this illustrious platform.” His spirituality is not only important to him, but he shows a clear belief that his words hold spiritual weight. The main story of this album is a story of modern religion, where Jay can share spiritual experience and speak freely as well as without regret of sin.
Jay Electronica wants his verses to be treated like literal gospel, and that takes a while to come around.
The Prophet
So, that brings up question number two. The all-important question: “why is there so much Jay-Z on this album?” I don’t have bars as an answer here, because this is a story that really only appears in the greater context of the album. For simplicity’s sake, Jay-Z will be Hov from here on out.
Ironic to his nickname, Hov is here to help Jay Electronica get his message out. Hov is the prophet here to get something out of Jay and to relieve some of the spiritual weight. He serves as a guide for Jay Electronica, often providing more structure. In several songs, you can hear energy being exchanged between the pair.
Hov was the only person for this role, because Hov is the only other person who can exhibit the sort of authoritative blackness Jay exudes. When other rappers compare themselves to T’challa, it doesn’t feel as natural as it does here. Hov has always had this commanding energy, but he’s gained a new, regal energy since 4:44. Hov seems to exist in 2020 to provide the sort of lessons Jay is trying to teach.
This album would likely never have existed without Hov. Jay Electronica believes his words carry too much weight – and would keep them in until other people believed it, too. This record is not just musical, but a secondhand spiritual experience.
It’s not a direct and obvious spiritual experience. It’s no attempt to convert you. True spirituality for many people allows flaws and allows flexibility, and Jay Electronica puts those on the forefront. The story of the album is a slice of life of a man in constant touch and constant struggle with his spiritual side. How it’s told is just as complex as the situation is.