Jay Electronica’s long-awaited album, A Written Testimony, arrived last week after a decade of anticipation. While fans have praised the project, the crew over at The Joe Budden Podcast had some criticisms that led to a back-and-forth exchange between Jay Electronica and Joe Budden.
During their March 14 podcast, “Dry Snitching,” the trio of hosts discussed the album and debated whether or not it really counts as Jay Electronica’s debut album due to the heavy presence of JAY-Z.
“Problem number one for me here, if this is your debut, you have to start it,” Budden said, referencing JAY-Z holding down the first verse on the album. “That’s a rule.”
Jay Electronica later caught wind of some of the comments, first tagging Budden’s cohost Rory before the former Slaughterhouse rapper jumped in:
JAY-Z is featured on eight of the album’s 10 tracks and has the first rap verse on the project. They teased the release as a joint album of sorts, although each song is only billed to Jay Electronica as a lead artist.
This isn’t the first time a hip-hop debut album had a co-star. In 1995, Raekwon released his debut album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, with his fellow Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah contributes to 14 of the album’s 17 tracks. The album cover credited Ghostface as a guest star.
Budden isn’t the only media figure Jay Electronica has butted heads with in recent days. Hot 97 host Peter Rosenberg called him out over the weekend for lyrics on “Ghost of Soulja Slim,” which he called offensive because of the term “Synagogue of Satan.” Jay Electronica fired back, saying it was a reference to the New Testament of The Bible and offering to hash out any differences in person.
Catch upon all the lyrics to Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony on Genius now.
