Conspiracies aside, Jay Electronica hasn’t missed a step when it comes to craft. “Ashes to Ashes,” from Power at the Rate of My Dreams, is arguably the most beautiful track out of the collection and hits on all the notes that make engaging the New Orleans native worth the frequent absences and head-scratching beliefs. He takes the Brazilian icon Jorge Ben Jor’s 1969 hit “Domingas,” slows it down, and delivers a mesmerizing stream-of-consciousness verse about his approach to life. “The long road to one’s own destiny ain’t paved/This treacherous path through the wilderness is only for the brave,” he starts, before honoring enslaved ancestors and leaning on that lineage to find peace in the fact that, when his time comes, he will be immortalized in his work. “Letter to Mars,” from Mars, The Inhabited Planet, is addressed to his daughter he shares with Erykah Badu. Originally released as an outtake from A Written Testimony in October 2020 on his own Discord channel, the song marks the beginning of the third and final installment of this new chapter. On it, he speaks of how long it’s taken him to resurface—a process that, by his estimation, was informed by a constant push-and-pull of dark and light forces within. Vocals from Thom Yorke’s “Bloom (Live From Electric Lady Studios)” add melancholic effect.
At his best, Electronica is painfully human. Throughout the duration of a project (and sometimes a single song), he goes from someone burdened by the weight of life, justifiably reclusive, to someone whose chest swells with spiritual belief, commitment to community, and trust in his artistic merit. He reveals these ebbs and flows lyrically, but is just as effective at communicating through voice recordings, selected film scenes, and knowing when to let a track breathe without his rapping present. Leaflets track “Four Billion, Four Hundred Million (4,400,000,000) / The Worst Is Yet to Come” begins with a clip of Stevie Wonder making an impromptu theme song for Soul Train in 1973. The rising New York singer Kelly Moonstone gets a chance to show her chops on Mars’ serene “… shine for me.” Electronica’s own crooning on the hook of “Japan Airline 1628” is so convincing that you may pause to try and find out who it is. And in using Michael Caine’s breakdown of a magic trick from The Prestige for “Dear Mr. Blain, I Won.,” he gives insight into why Act II: The Patents of Nobility (the turn) is always disappearing from streaming platforms.