Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)

Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) is the debut mixtape by American rapper Jay Electronica, self-published onto MySpace on July 2, 2007. The mixtape plays as one 15-minute track, sampling five different tracks of American record producer Jon Brion's 2004 film score, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The mixtape covers a range of themes and subjects, including hip hop, Islam, and unidentified flying objects. It is notable for its lack of drums.

Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)
Mixtape by
Jay Electronica
ReleasedJuly 2, 2007
GenreHip hop
Length15:40
LabelSelf-published
Jay Electronica chronology
Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)
(2007)		 A Written Testimony
(2020)
Alternative cover
Commercial cover art, which replaces the original since the 2016 Tidal re-release.
Official audio
Act 1: Eternal Sunshine on YouTube

The mixtape features a spoken word opening from Jay Electronica's frequent collaborators Just Blaze and Erykah Badu. Jay Electronica began recording Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) with his built-in laptop microphone before completing it in Detroit. It has received critical acclaim for its experimentation and has since been described as Jay Electronica's breakout project. A follow-up album titled Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn) never materialized, but his debut album, A Written Testimony was released instead in 2020, nearly thirteen years later.

Background and recording

Jay Electronica said he was motivated to create the mixtape due to the influence of films on him and his art.[1] After watching the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he felt inspired by its story and its score, composed by Jon Brion.[2] He singled out a scene in which Jim Carrey's character Joel is excited for the first time in the film when meeting Kate Winslet's character Clementine, noting the contrapuntal nature of the low-key score when played underneath what appears to be a highly pivotal scene. Jay Electronica stated he "just wanted to do something that felt like that".[1]

That night, he looped Brion's music and recorded a 32-bar verse on GarageBand with his built-in laptop microphone.[2] He uploaded the demo onto his Myspace as "Eternal Sunshine".[2] After the "Eternal Sunshine" demo received positive reception, Jay Electronica went to Detroit to record the rest of the mixtape over Brion's score.[2] In a 2007 interview, Jay Electronica stated the movements were listed in order of creation and mood change, as he rapped about what he "was dealing with mentally at the time".[3] He "decided to have it as one piece so that whoever heard it could experience it the way it was intended".[3]

Music and composition

Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) is a hip hop record.[2] Built on samples from Jon Brion's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind film score, the mixtape contains no drums.[4] The sampled score was described as a "dreamlike melancholy" by Adam Isaac Itkoff of Okayplayer and includes pianos.[5] The score samples several films, including 1971 American film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.[5] Sweeney Kovar of The Boombox described the final movement as the only part of Brion's score "that can be described as optimistic or otherwise cheerful.".[2] New York Post's Rob Bailey-Millado characterized Jay Electronica's rapping as trippy.[6]

Themes and lyrics

Sweeney Kovar of The Boombox described Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) as "a dissection of society through a hip-hop lens".[2] In the mixtape, Jay Electronica references Islam, which became consistent with his discography.[7] The mixtape's opening is a spoken word piece performed by American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu and American producer Just Blaze. Badu describes her first encounter with Jay Electronica and Just Blaze describes the nature of the mixtape.[5] Jay Electronica does not appear on the mixtape until six minutes in.[8]

On the second movement "Eternal Sunshine", he frames Act I by setting his role as a metaphysician. He proclaims his genre to be "God-hop" and denounces traditional hip-hop, but admits that its rewards are tempting.[2] The third movement, "…Because He Broke the Rules", begins with a Willy Wonka sample where the title character yells at a boy for stealing Fizzy Lifting Drinks, thus preventing the boy from receiving his prize. This sample serves as a metaphor for the high demands that a romantic relationship can impose on each person as Jay Electronica raps about being emotionally broken and lonely. He evokes the duality of good and evil with the left-and-right sides of his brain.[2]

On the fourth movement "Voodoo Man", the title character has three different incarnations for each verse. In the first incarnation, the Voodoo Man is a rapper "who can turn nothing into something." In the second incarnation, the Voodoo Man becomes the "Asiatic Black Man of East Asia", derived from Nation of Islam theology, who uses an unidentified flying object to travel to New Orleans, Japan, and Tepoztlán. The final incarnation is the same Voodoo Man but with no regard for humanity. He compares colonialism to modern hip-hop.[2] Jay Electronica also praises Elijah Muhammad, former leader of the Nation of Islam.[7] The fifth and final movement, "FYI", opens with a sampled speech from Muhammad.[2][7] Jay Electronica reflects on man's relatively short time on Earth and contrasts a rapper's obsession with jewelry to the larger-scale declassification of UFO files by CNES. "Lucifer" is described as the condition that humankind battles with.[2]

Release and promotion

Jay Electronica released Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) onto his Myspace on July 2, 2007, while he was still a relatively unknown rapper. It had no formal promotion, but garnered over 50,000 downloads within the first 30 days of its posting.[2] Thus, the mixtape has been described as Jay Electronica's breakout project.[9] He previously released the second movement as a demo track onto MySpace and received positive reception.[1] The mixtape was rereleased onto the streaming service Tidal on July 2, 2016.[10]

Critical reception

In 2010, Matt Diehl of Interview described Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) as "a 15-minute musique concrete surreal symphony".[11] That same year, The Guardian's Paul Lester compared parts of the mixtape to American musician Ariel Pink.[12] In 2013, Ryan Bassil from Vice noted the mixtape's lack of drums and called it "a timeless classic".[4] In 2017, Adam Isaac Itkoff, writing for Okayplayer, revisited the mixtape for its ten-year anniversary and described it as "one of the most fearlessly experimental rap releases to ever dawn upon the digital age".[5] In 2020, Dhruva Balram from NME wrote that the mixtape was "a change of pace in an age where everything was auto-tuned."[13] That same year, Brendan Klinkenberg of Rolling Stone described it as weird and dense but praised the rapping, stating that it allowed Jay Electronica to be "quickly hailed as the genre's next great hope."[8]

Sequels

Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) was meant to be the first part of a trilogy, with the next planned installment being entitled Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn).[4] The titles are inspired by the 2006 British-American film The Prestige.[4] In September 2007, Jay Electronica indicated that he planned to create Act II and Act III.[3] He announced that Act II was completed in 2011 and shared a track list in 2012.[4] The track list 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.[14] The album was never released.[4] In February 2020, he announced that he completed his debut album over the course of 40 days, titled A Written Testimony.[15] The album was released on March 13, 2020, nearly thirteen years after the release of Act I.[8][16]

Several songs included on the Act II track list have been officially released or leaked.[17] In November 2010, Jay Electronica released the song "Shiny Suit Theory" featuring Jay-Z and The-Dream.[18] The song was later included on A Written Testimony.[19] British singer-songwriter The Bullitts released "Run & Hide" as a short film in July 2011.[20] Jay Electronica released the songs "Better in Tune With the Infinite" featuring LaTonya Givens in March 2014[21] and "Road To Perdition" featuring sampled vocals from Jay-Z in March 2015.[22] 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.[23] The track "Memories & Merlot" leaked in July 2019 and the solo track "@Fatbellybella" has also surfaced.[17][24]

Track listing

The mixtape plays as one singular track, but has five separate movements:[2][25]

No.TitleLength
1."Foreword" (by Erykah Badu and Just Blaze) 
2."Eternal Sunshine" 
3."...Because He Broke The Rules" 
4."Voodoo Man" 
5."FYI" 
Total length:15:40

References
  1. URB Staff (January 21, 2008). "Jay Electronica: A Spotless Mind". URB. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  2. Sweeney Kovar (October 10, 2013). "Revisiting... Jay Electronica's 'Act I: The Pledge'". The Boombox. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  3. Andres Reyes (September 24, 2007). "Raw & Straightforward: The Jay Electronica Interview". ThaHipHop. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 11, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  4. Ryan Bassil (October 23, 2013). "The Prestige, The Five Percenters, and Why Jay Electronica Hasn't Released His Debut Album". Vice UK. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  5. Adam Isaac Itkoff (July 2, 2017). "Eternal Sunshine: The 10-Year Anniversary of Jay Electronica's 'Act 1'". Okayplayer. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  6. Rob Bailey-Millado (March 13, 2020). "Rapper Jay Electronica releases debut album 'A Written Testimony'". New York Post. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  7. Najma Sharif (April 8, 2020). "An Examination Of The Islamic References In Jay Electronica's 'A Written Testimony'". Okayplayer. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  8. Brendan Klinkenberg (March 13, 2020). "Jay Electronica's Debut Album Is Real, and It's Finally Here". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  9. "13 Pop, Rock and Jazz Concerts to Check Out in N.Y.C. This Weekend". The New York Times. July 25, 2019. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  10. "Act 1 Eternal Sunshine - The Pledge / Jay Electronica". Tidal. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  11. Matt Diehl (September 17, 2010). "Jay Electronica". Interview. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  12. Paul Lester (March 12, 2010). "New band of the day – No 745: Jay Electronica". The Guardian. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  13. Dhruva Balram (March 17, 2020). "Jay Electronica – 'A Written Testimony' review: mythical rapper's Jay-Z collab isn't the revelation fans had hoped for". NME. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  14. Evan Minsker (July 28, 2012). "Jay Electronica Shares Album Tracklist". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on January 28, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  15. Evan Minsker (February 7, 2020). "Jay Electronica Says His New Album Is Out in 40 Days". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  16. Keith Murphy (March 14, 2020). "Jay Electronica's album 'A Written Testimony' is proof hip-hop loves a comeback". The Undefeated. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  17. Grant Rindner (July 7, 2019). "Jay Electronica Embraces Faith & Nostalgia On Leaked "Memories & Merlot"". Genius. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  18. Brad Callas (February 25, 2020). "The Long Road to Jay Electronica's Debut Album". Complex. Archived from the original on March 3, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  19. Eric Diep (March 17, 2020). "A Decade Later, Jay Electronica's 'A Written Testimony' Is Right on Time". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  20. Dantana (July 27, 2011). "Short Film: The Bullitts x Jay Electronica "Run & Hide" + "Close Your Eyes"". Okayplayer. Archived from the original on November 13, 2011. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  21. Evan Minsker (March 15, 2014). "Listen to Jay Electronica's New Song "Better in Tune With the Infinite"". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on April 24, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  22. Michelle Geslani (March 6, 2015). "Jay Electronica and Jay Z team up for "Road To Perdition" — listen". Consequence of Sound. Archived from the original on May 2, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  23. Elias Leight (June 6, 2017). "Hear Jay Electronica's Uplifting New Song 'Letter to Falon'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  24. Justin Ivey (July 7, 2019). ""Act II" Leak? New Jay Electronica Track "Memories & Merlot" Surfaces Online". HipHopDX. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  25. "Jay Electronica - New Orleans (3rd Ward) - Rock / Soul / Black Metal". Myspace. Archived from the original on September 8, 2007.
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