It has been 10 years since prolific rapper Jay Electronica inked his recording deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
Is Jay Electronica finally releasing his debut album?
It would perturb the uninformed to know that his debut album is set to drop a decade later.
At least, that is what Jay Electronica’s inner circle has led us to believe.
Following a string of tweets in February where he stated that his album was done; that Hov had a hand in it; and that it was due to release in 40 days, Hip-Hop purists have turned into Sherlock Holmes on social media.
Nobody can be blamed for not believing Jay Electronica’s claims.
As reported by Hip-Hop N More, the man has made this claim multiple times in the past 10 years, all the while teasing fans with timeless lyrical miracles in the form of singles such as Exhibit C and Road to Perdition.
However, this time around, it just felt different.
Following the announcement, Jay-Z, who is hardly ever on social media, made it a point to like Jay Electronica’s tweets about the album.
Roc Nation insider and renowned photographer, Lenny S, has been beside himself for about a month now, trying hard to contain the information he has on the album.
Prominent Roc Nation affiliated producers Young Guru (who, coincidentally, is Jay-Z’s DJ and engineer) and Just Blaze, have also confirmed that Jay Electronica’s debut album is most certainly going to drop in a matter of days.
Here is everything we know about Jay Electronica’s album
So, what do we believe, and what do we oust as public relations hogwash? Here’s what we know for certain.
The debut album title has been released
On 7 February, Jay Elect sent a pulsating surge that rippled through the global Hip Hop community when he announced that he will be releasing his debut album in 40 days.
He followed that tweet up with ‘A Written Testimony’. At the time, nobody knew what he was referring to.
However, Tidal has confirmed that this is, indeed, the title of the rapper’s debut project.
It’s probably a joint effort by Jay Electronica and Jay-Z
A picture showing Jay Elect, Jay-Z and Supreme Street founder Lawrence ‘Law’ Parker cooked up in a studio has been circulating on social media and blogs after it was shared by Guru on his Instagram page.
This, coupled with the liked tweets from Jay-Z’s account, is enough circumstantial evidence to argue that the Empire State of Mind rap billionaire is involved, in some capacity, with Jay Elect’s debut album.
Whether this is a joint project (think Watch The Throne) remains to be seen but it takes very little imagination to see it happening after you’ve read Jay Elect’s tweet from 7 February.
Tidal confirms listening sessions for the album
The news that made it all official came from Tidal.
Jay-Z’s music streaming service took to social media on Wednesday to announce that there will be three intimate listening sessions hosted in three cities (in the United States), giving fans an exclusive listen to A Written Testimony.
At this time, it is not known if Tidal will host a simulcast live stream of the event.
The release date is not confirmed but we have a clue
Jay Elect, on 7 February stated that his album drops in 40 days. Calculated from the date the announcement was made, A Written Testimony is expected to drop on Friday 20 March.
However, with exclusive listening sessions being held this week, it would come as no surprise if Jay Elect pulled the wool over our heads and released the album this Friday.
