Jay loves these extended monologues, tossing in Professor Marvel from The Wizard of Oz and Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad at the start, before taking hold of the track with a very subdued and ballad-esque performance. The elegant Charlotte Gainsbourg plays a much larger part in “Dinner at Tiffany’s” much like her father on the previous track, Charlotte sets up the tone of the next few minutes by delivering the introduction in French but transitions to English for the rest of the song, “Heaven, we find / Overturned, out of line / Leaving all of your innocence / bouncing out of time.” This isn’t like Testimony, where it felt like most of the album was Jay-Z’s Gainsbourg’s detour into the string arrangements is a welcome segue to the powerhouse single “Shiny Suit Theory” – the original leaked tracklist revealed that these two songs were intended to be combined.Īct II continues its trip down memory lane as we’re treated to the soulful voice of LaTonya Givens on “Better in Tune”, which came from a Twitter request back in 2014 and has been floating around the bootleg circuit. “A two-faced handshake rejects the gesture / Turn the other cheek and caress the sceptre,” Jay rhymes, continuing the theme of distrust in the world from supposed allies. This double header gives Act II a lovable diversion it brings the mood down, and while Jay raps in between Serge and Bardot, the tandem works beautifully with the rhythmic guitar strings underlying their vocals. First Jay samples Serge’s famous Brigitte Bardot duet “Bonnie and Clyde” for his own “Bonny and Clyde”, before he enlists the Frenchman’s daughter Charlotte to soothe us on “Dinner at Tiffany’s”. While the references seem outdated, it’s interesting to hear these thoughts a decade later and help to fill in the gaps to what Jay was going through while we waited for the album.Ī double shot of Gainsbourg early in the running lends a hand to elevating Act II to being a more intriguing listen than its predecessor. “Real Magic” segues seamlessly into the never-before-heard “New Illuminati”, where Jay raps over a tribal beat “Busting bottles / fucking models / and ducking paparazzi / Killuminati / and fuck Bill O’Reilly and Rudy Giuliani.” Clearly this was written some time ago O’Reilly is hardly ever paid attention to after his dismissal from Fox News, and everyone knows how much of a bumbling buffoon Giuliani is – but it’s still relevant to call out hate-mongers, no matter what decade we’re in. The proposed trilogy draws influence from Christopher Nolan’s 2006 magician spectacle The Prestige, so many of the themes presented on Act II relate to magic – hence the introduction piece “Real Magic”, which features former president Ronald Reagan spewing extremist rhetoric before Jay lays down the trajectory, “Sometimes I don’t know what to say / This is genuine miracle / I woke up today / so I got up to pray.” His previous connections to the Nation of Islam have always been present in his music, it was all over Testimony, and religion still fuels his witticisms on Act II. While there are guests on it, we’re largely hearing Jay himself throughout. The main difference between Act II and Testimony is the greater presence of the star himself, Jay Electronica. Given the nature of this release – whether it was purposely leaked or not – it’s hard to tell if this version of the album is what Jay originally intended. All resemble their original versions, so hardly anything has been tweaked after all these years. Within this sequel to his first mixtape – 2007’s Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) – Jay has assembled a wealth of previously heard and released tracks like the Jay-Z and The-Dream featuring banger “Shiny Suit Theory”, originally released in 2010 (and then again earlier this year on Testimony), as well as other randomly dropped singles such as 2017’s “Letter to Falon”. So the sudden leak/release of Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn) comes as quite the surprise. It didn’t disappoint, it was just what one would expect from a buzzy rapper on their debut, and while it did feature Jay-Z on practically every track, that didn’t matter so much as it still contained top-notch bars and a rapport between the two that was undeniable. But Testimony wasn’t what anyone was expecting. Testimony wasn’t supposed to be his first album – it came 13 years late, despite the rapper’s constant insinuation that it would come any moment. Earlier this year, Louisiana rapper Jay Electronica released his debut album A Written Testimony, aided heavily by the presence of Jay-Z, the very man who jump-started his career back in 2007.
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