Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
Jay Electronica just returned after a decade of no-shows with his debut album, A Written Testimony—and his JAY-Z-assisted track, “Flux Capacitor,” samples a cut off Rihanna’s 2016 LP, ANTI.
The AWT song loops chopped-up vocals from “Higher” in the background, including the “too late” from this line:
I hope I ain’t calling you too late, too late
On the Bibi Bourelly-penned tune—also released on Roc Nation—Rihanna deliberately strains into her upper register with a chainsmoker’s huskiness, as she sings about drunk-dialing a lover:
This whiskey got me feelin' pretty
So pardon if I’m impolite
I just really need your ass with me
I’m sorry ‘bout the other night
And I know I could be more creative
And come up with poetic lines
But I’m turnt up upstairs and I love you
Is the only thing that’s in my mind
She explained the concept behind the “drunk voicemail” tune in 2016 cover story for Vogue. “You know he’s wrong, and then you get drunk and you’re like, ‘I could forgive him. I could call him. I could make up with him.’ Just, desperate.”
On “Flux Capacitor,” the two Jays also pay homage to Lil Elt’s bounce classic “Get the Gat” on the refrain:
To my uptown posse (Yeah), to my uptown posse (Yeah, yeah)
Get the gat (Yeah), get the gat (Yeah), get the gat (Ya heard?)
To my BK posse (Yeah), to my BK posse (Yeah, yeah)
Get the gat (Yeah), get the gat (Yeah), get the gat (Ya heard?)
To my 3rd Ward posse (Yeah), to my 3rd Ward posse (Yeah, yeah)
Get the gat (Yeah), get the gat (Yeah), get the gat (Ya heard?)
As OkayPlayer points out, this isn’t the first time Jay Electronica referenced that line. Back in 2009, the NOLA native referenced Lil Elt’s 1992 single on “Exhibit A (Transformations)”:
Back in the early ‘90s, where they at, where they at
Get the gat, get the gat was a popular phrase
Last year, LSU’s football teams sparked the “Get The Gat” challenge, and Lil Elt spoke to The Hype Magazine about gaining recognition in the wake of the viral phenomenon:
It feels like a dream that came true for me, man. That’s just what it feels like. I felt like… all these years, I always got the recognition for the song as a hit. Everybody loved it. Day in and day out, I just hear about it. And that’s through my city, whether they play it in the club or whatever. And now to come back and… man, I’m ready to do the thing. This is just what I wanted from day one is to touch the world. I went through Louisiana and was able to capitalize off it. And could only touch Houston as far as me moving around doing shows. We basically like shut it down from there. I knew it never reached its full potential, and to come back like this, I look at it like a volcano that’s been hovering under the ground, you know what I’m saying; hot fire lava.
“Get the Gat” also sampled Black Sheep’s “This or That.”
Elsewhere on Jay Electronica’s track, Hov works in a triple-entendre, as Genius’ Insanul Ahmed and Rob Markman point out:
Last month, he announced that the album was done after recording for “40 days and 40 nights”:
This is his first release since his 2007 mixtape Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge).
Listen to the song above, and read all the lyrics to “Flux Capacitor,” on Genius now.
