Soon after Jay Electronica released his debut mixtape Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) in 2007, he announced Act II as a follow-up. A track listing was revealed in 2012. Several songs from the project were released as loose singles that Jay Electronica dropped over the years, among these are: "Life On Mars", "Better in Tune", "Road to Perdition", "
Shiny Suit Theory", and "Letter to Falon".
Background
Jay Electronica's debut mixtape Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) (2007) was meant to be the first part of a
trilogy, with each title being inspired by the 2006 British-American film The Prestige.[3] In September 2007, Jay Electronica indicated that he planned to create Act II and Act III.[4] Following the official release of his hit single "
Exhibit C", he announced on American music station
Shade 45 that Act II would be released on
Christmas Day 2009; American record producer
Just Blaze confirmed shortly after that the album would miss this date.[5]
Jay Electronica announced that The Patents of Nobility (The Turn) was complete in 2011 and shared a track listing on his Twitter page in 2012.[3] The track listing included guest appearances from American rappers
Jay-Z,
Kanye West, and
Sean Combs, American singer
The-Dream, and English-French actress
Charlotte Gainsbourg, amongst others.[6] The album was not released.[3] In 2014, Jay Electronica again announced that his album would be releasing that year.[7] In February 2020, Jay Electronica announced that he completed his debut album over the course of 40 days, titled A Written Testimony.[8] The album was released on March 13, 2020, nearly thirteen years after the release of Act I.[9][10]
Several songs included on the Act II track list were officially released or
leaked online.[11] The songs "
Shiny Suit Theory", "Better in Tune With the Infinite", "Road to Perdition", and "Letter to Fallon" were officially released as singles.[12][13][14][15] British singer-songwriter
The Bullitts released "Run & Hide" as a short film in July 2011.[16] The tracks "Memories & Merlot" and "Real Magic" leaked in July 2019 and September 2020, respectively.[11][17][18] The entire album leaked in October 2020, after which Jay Electronica announced the album would be officially released.[19]
Recording
"
Shiny Suit Theory" came as a result of Jay Electronica meeting American rapper Jay-Z by chance at a birthday celebration for
Atlantic Records COO
Julie Greenwald at
The Spotted Pig.[20] The meeting was followed by "weeks of intense daily communication and creative courtship" related to Jay-Z wanting to sign Jay Electronica to his record label
Roc Nation.[21] According to American journalist
Miss Info, Jay Electronica knew Jay-Z was serious when he attached a recorded verse to his second reply email.[21] "Shiny Suit Theory" is the second
movement of a two-part song, with the first movement being titled "Dinner at Tiffanys".[20] "Dinner at Tiffanys" was composed by British singer-songwriter
The Bullitts, who worked on the movement's strings. English-French actress
Charlotte Gainsbourg had a guest appearance on the movement, though Jay Electronica initially wanted English actress
Julie Andrews.[20] Both "Dinner at Tiffany's" and "Shiny Suit Theory" were listed together as one piece on the album's 2012 track list.
American rapper
Big Sean's 2013 song "
Control" was originally meant to be on Jay Electronica's album, but it was eventually given to Sean, who wanted it on his sophomore studio album Hall of Fame but couldn't clear the sample in time.[22] However, Big Sean instead released the song as a
promotional single after American rapper
Kendrick Lamar recorded his controversial verse for it.[22]
Release and promotion
The album was originally announced in 2007, but was delayed several times.[4][23]
Jay Electronica claimed that Act II: Patents of Nobility (the Turn) was finished in 2011,[3] then later revealed the track listing in July 2012.[6] The album never released and was delayed indefinitely. On October 4, 2020, almost 11 years after its originally announced release date, it leaked online after a group of internet users on
Discord raised $9,000 to purchase it from a hacker.[23][24]
Shortly after the leak, Jay Electronica went to his Twitter and Instagram to acknowledge the leak and thanked his fans for the warm response to the album.[25][26] In a series of now-deleted tweets, Jay Electronica said they would try to clear the samples, then get it on Tidal as soon as possible.[25] The following day, Jay Electronica posted a link on his Twitter page to the official Tidal release.[27][26][28]
On October 28, 2020, the album was taken down from Tidal for unknown reasons. A month later, Jay Electronica revealed in his
Discord server that the finished version of Act II has unreleased verses from
Kanye West and that he would try to get them cleared before re-releasing the album.[29][30][31]
Singles
In July 2010, Jay Electronica posted a video to his YouTube channel titled "Act II: Ruff Songs that didnt make the final cut." which had an early version of the song "Life On Mars" also known as "@FatBellyBella", the title is in reference to his and
Erykah Badu's daughter Mars Merkaba.[2][32]
In November 2010, Jay Electronica released the song "Shiny Suit Theory" featuring Jay-Z and The-Dream.[12] The song was later included on A Written Testimony.[33] Jay Electronica released the songs "Better in Tune With the Infinite" featuring LaTonya Givens in March 2014 and "Road To Perdition" featuring sampled vocals from Jay-Z in March 2015.[13][14] In June 2017, he released "Letter to Falon", produced by English musician
Paul Epworth, after being inspired by American basketball player
Kevin Durant's performance at the
2017 NBA Finals.[15]
Controversy
On 12 July 2020, British radio station
Rinse FM broadcast the track "Better in Tune With the Infinite", after which a listener complained that the lyrics contained
antisemitichate speech. Following an investigation, British media regulator
Ofcom found Rinse FM to be in breach of three rules of its
broadcasting code, concluding that "the track contained antisemitic hate speech, abusive, derogatory and potentially offensive lyrics which were not justified by the context". Ofcom also stated that the breaches were serious enough to be considered for a statutory sanction of Rinse FM.[34]
Pitchfork lauded the record, awarding it "Best New Music", with Matthew Ismael Ruiz writing "even slightly unfinished, it is nearly an all-time classic, the kind of record that celebrates an art form while simultaneously pushing it forward."[36] Craig Jenkins of Vulture said "Act II foregrounds Jay Electronica’s words in a way that sticks out among major-label hip-hop releases then as now, front-loading the project with intricate, personal storytelling exercises most artists might relegate to a late-album interlude."[37] In a less positive review, Paul Thompson in GQ stated "Act II is strange—the third song is, simply, the audio from a Dick Tracy Two-Way Wrist Radio commercial laid over music—and in spots rewarding. But it must be said that few of its songs rank among Jay Electronica's best."[38]
Pitchfork included Act II on their best albums of 2020 list at number 14.[39]