Nas speaks on Jay Electronica

Posted Saturday, March 29, 2008 @ 03:28 in Beat Reporter by Brandon Perkins

More than a few people, including Jesse Serwer (who penned URB #152's cover story on the man), have compared this point in Jay Electronica's career to that special time in between "Live at the BBQ" and Illmatic. We caught up with Nas last week for a piece in URB #153 and he was nearly smitten once presented with the Jay Electronica issue. He went on to confirm that Jay Electronica will appear on Nigger, as producer and MC, after thoroughly concurring with Mr. Serwer's statement.

URB: What makes Jay so special?
Nas: "He does him man. I thought that when you get into something you get into it because you want to represent and do it to the fullest, regardless if you getting the credit or not. I hear people that think they not getting the respect they think they deserve, complaining to people because they not on top. Or blamin' record companies or blamin' other rappers they record with. And you know that happens all the time but it's rare that you see someone that’s not asking for a handout, that’s not looking for a lookout. Someone who came into the business like how I came. I didn’t come in with a platinum, multi-platinum act in the middle of the rap world when it was on top. I had a verse in '91 with a fairly underground rap group. And it created my buzz and I had to climb on my own. I would not have accepted me coming into the business any other way. You know? And today people get superstars to endorse them and it got a lot easier and they still complainin'. Somebody like Jay Electronica got their awareness of the same shit, superstars. He's onto his own thing and that is everything to him. It doesn’t matter if people pay attention today. It doesn’t matter when they get it, but they going to get it."

And musically?
"He got that shit where, you know, shit just sound like music. And you can hear what he's saying and when he gets into it he goes all the way into it. He knows there’s an audience out there that can hear what he’s saying and that’s what he's been with me in the studio, like fuck that, they going to know what you mean, they going to know what you saying."

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