Dear Daniel Dumile a.k.a. MF Doom a.k.a. Zev Love X a.k.a. King Geedorah a.k.a Metal Fingers a.k.a. Viktor Vaughn a.k.a. Ducktor Doom a.k.a. Victor Von Doom a.k.a….
– DJ Kno
In the mid 90’s Golden Age of NY Hip Hop, there was Nas chipping his tooth and Jay-Z losing 92 keys. In the early 2000s, it was 50 Cent and Game getting shot. Creation stories are a hip hop resume, making sure references, achievements, and credibility are in order before anyone gets the job of Mainstream Rapper.
Fate would have it that Jay Electronica released his second song in three years, We Made It featuring Jay-Z, the same week as the 10 year anniversary of MF Doom’s Madvillainy.
The creation myth surrounding MF Doom and Jay Electronica not only significantly influence their craft, but also the audience’s perception of their art in ways that transcend hip hop. MF Doom’s story is known: he and his brother were in a group called KMD in the early 90s. His brother was killed in a car accident the week their second album Black Bastards was to be released. KMD got dropped from their label the same week. Somewhere in the next four years, Zev Love X began showing up with open mic nights around New York wearing a mask, re-appearing as a villain named MF Doom (because, regardless of adversity, a villain “always returns”).
Jay Electronica’s background isn’t as well known as MF Doom’s. But like all creation myths, it began at a low point. He was homeless, sleeping on NY subways, floating around Baltimore, New Orleans, and Richmond, Virginia. Somewhere in those years, he became Jay Electronica, more new age alchemist than villain, who used dense lyrics as his version of a “mask”. His musical introduction came in 2007, touching on subjects about spirituality and our place in the world over Jon Brion movie scores.
It’s those years of spent drifting that keeps bringing us back (at least, keeps bringing me back – and why Port of Miami is my favorite Rick Ross album). If Jay Electronica is the closest figure to MF Doom in hip hop today, then MF Doom is the hip hop Andy Kaufman, holding the audience at arm’s length behind wordplay and a mask (“What does MF Doom look like” has 212,000 results on Google). Cunninlynguists producer DJ Kno wrote him an open letter, asking him not to send imposters in MF Doom masks out for live performances. Were we in on the performance – or were we the performance?
The key difference from the era of Madvillainy to We Made It is, of course, social media. But in this case, it really isn’t.
Twitter humanized our favorite celebrities with tweets about the banalities of the everyday experiences. Then look through Jay Electronica’s sparse Twitter account with 30 tweets and 246,000 followers – how much more do you know about him?
Mystery keeps us coming back, regardless of era or social media platform. Through tweets, prolonged periods of inactivity, and spiritual freestyles, Jay Electronica shines a light on, and blurs the rabbit hole at the same time.
The Line Heard Round the World
Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk / Silly me rappin’ bout shit I really bought
– Jay-Z
Jay Electronica’s first single in three years, better in tune with the infinite, uses a similar formula as his debut single Eternal Sunshine (which came out in 2007) – one verse over a movie score. But over six years, his relationship with the universe, religion, and his own being was all in tact.
That lead to Jay-Z’s guest appearance over Drake’s We Made It, in which Jay-Z defended his ventures in the art world. And we accept that a song that celebrates everything from Roc Nation to Lupita Nyong’o will stand out for that one bar. This is Jay-Z vs. Drake, after all.
As for Jay Electronica, what’s his place in the current hip hop lead by Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, and Drake – or does it even matter? MF Doom never reflected the wider 2004 scene, lead by Eminem’s Encore selling 5.3 million copies. Madvillainy survived all this time through a cult following, word of mouth, Mos Def videos, and Odd Future shoutouts. But with his recent releases and a rumored album forever on the way, 2014 might be the year when Jay Electronica becomes a little more human.
