Jay Electronica: Brooklyn Bodega Interview

Brooklyn Bodega got a short sitdown with Jay Electronica recently and we've got the info they picked up right here. Brooklyn Bodega thankfully went an unconventional route and asked some questions that are worth checking up on. No boring stuff here, which is not what I can say for more interviews.

CHECK THE INTERVIEW

Via Brooklyn Bodega:
I stood there for nineteen and a half minutes.

Watched. Waited.

I stood there while the mass of people grew larger around him. Person after person walked up to him with well wishes and digital cameras and tokens for this night’s God Emcee.

There was the old colleague who returned the furry Russian Trapper hat that he left in the studio. There was Chris and his boy who both wanted pictures and were nervous enough while asking that they accidentally turned the camera off during the second shot. There was the long-haired Greek looking model-slash-actress-slash-probably-a-waitress chick that boxed me out of the way, praying to build with the God.

There were 5-Percenters praising (his track) “Annakin’s Prayer”. There were young cats. There were old heads. There were women. There was everyone. All for an Underground rapper from New Orleans with little more than a couple mixtapes and a couple singles. All for Mr. “He Can Pass A Polygraph.”

All for Jay Electronica.

Fuck That. Jay ElectHanukkah.

Through all this, as the masses verged on mayhem, Jay remained humble. Gracious even. Taking every picture. Building with every fan.

When more fans encircled, he remained gracious. When Mighty Mos Def (who rarely does interviews or pictures) tried pulling him away to an after hours spot, he graciously stayed with his fans.

And when those nineteen and a half minutes were up, when The Company Man finally grabbed his attention long enough to ask these four questions, he graciously answered each one.

TCM: The Company Man with BrooklynBodega.com. I’ve been in New York City for about seven years. I’m from South Carolina before that. I have never seen an underground artist not from NYC catch as much love as you’re catching right now. How does that feel? How does that feel to walk out the spot and you have literally nineteen and half minutes worth (by my count) of people who just want to say ‘whats up’, ‘peace to the god’, ‘respect your music’? How does that feel right now?

JE: 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. Shit, I can’t explain it. Its overwhelming.

TCM: Well its deserved, man. I first heard you on [Act I: Eternal Sunshine]. Then you hear “Exhibit A”, you hear “Exhibit C” which is blowing up right now, and those sounds are very very different, you know what I mean? So you’re showing a lot of range when you do stuff like that. What can we expect from your new album coming out, and when can we expect to hear it?

JE: Aww man, I don’t even know how to answer that question. I go from periods of ‘oh, the album is finished!’ to ‘I gotta start from nothing’, you know what I’m saying? But in terms of what its going to be like, its going to be — just like my body of work thats available right now — it will be just as broad as that because I only make it how I feel it. Even if its something that people probably might feel like ‘oh well he’s doing something other than his self.’ I can only keep doing what I’m doing, you know what I’m saying. Its what got me this successful in life. I tried the other way and it wasn’t successful, so I’m doing me.

TCM: Theres always a lot of commentary about the state of the industry and ‘we don’t like this’ or ‘we miss that’, you know? But everyone from every region seems to agree on you. Where do you think that you fit? What do you think your role is in all this thats happening right now?

JE: I don’t know, man. I’m just trying to be a better person and connect with as many people as I can connect with on the way. Its a collective movement. It ain’t me. I tried to do it “me” before. That shit don’t work. Everybody out here, they ain’t out here for me. They out here for something else, you know what I’m saying?

TCM: On OkayPlayer.com there was a big debate — Lupe Fiasco vs Jay Electronica — going on. I know how I feel about it. I know everyone else knows how they feel about it. But when can we expect to hear yall on a track together?

JE: We going to be on a track together in the immediate future. Thats my brother. He reached out. I got bad phone etiquette so it took me a minute to reach back. But we gonna reach, we gonna talk. We’ve been in communication and we’re going to work. Thats my brother. And his sword is magnificent and he’s a great god at what he does, you know what I’m saying. We’re going to connect.

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Jay Electronica performed during MIND BODY SOUL a diabetes awareness event honoring Malik Isaac Taylor (Phife Dawg) presented by The Heavy Sound, held at the new Knitting Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The Heavy Sound is a collective of accomplished artists and entrepreneurs, who develop fresh, new sights, sounds and sub-cultural experiences. They are committed to being thought-leaders, as they develop high-quality goods, which aim to creatively inspire the discerning public. They seek to encourage a feel-good attitude and promote an ‘authentic’ life of leisure in all they do.