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It’s hard to find anything to say about Jay Electronica that hasn’t already been said by your favorite rapper. He’s all the rage amongst artists and the hardcore followers of Hip Hop music, but not really well known amongst casual listeners. So if you are a professor of the boom bap, you might not find anything new in today’s column. But if you’ve never heard of Jay Electronica, do yourself a favor and read on.

Jay is from New Orleans, but he’s traveled around a lot and has a flow that sounds more akin to Sunz of Man than Hot Boys. He is, like our last check for this artist Tableek, also a Muslim rapper, and his rhymes are often filled with religious imagery and morals, but like many of Jay’s fellow human beings, he’s not a saint. He also raps about weed and women, so you shouldn’t look at him as a prophet, but more as a regular guy with a complete world view.

The thing that separates JE from the pack though is his double duties as a producer. He produced several tracks off of E. Badu’s latest New AmErykah and “Queens get the Money”, the opening track off of Nas new record. On his various releases, he’s done his own production work as well, and also used some Dilla beats, Jay Dee being one of JE’s earliest collaborators and supporters. He gained a lot of attention for his looping of the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” riff and kicking his enlightened lyrics over the top. You can download a lot of Jay’s music for free from his myspace page, and I highly recommend checking him out. I also saw him live recently and his show was dope, so if he’s playing anywhere near you, check him out.

http://www.myspace.com/jayelect

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