Jay Electronica Always Wanted To Sign With Bad Boy

Mercurial MC Jay Electronica signed with JAY-Z Roc Nation in 2010, but apparently he always had his sights set on another New York rap institution: Bad Boy Records. In a May 30 interview with DJBooth, engineer Mike Chav shed some light on Jay’s longtime fixation with signing to Diddy’s storied label.

In the interview, Chav explained that Jay looked up to Nas and The Notorious B.I.G., and saw Diddy as the kind of figure who could help him achieve that level of fame.

“Jay wanted to sign to Bad Boy. That was always his mission from the very beginning,” Chav said. “His reasoning was, ‘Puffy’s the only dude who can walk across the street to CNN and go sit down on Larry King Live anytime that he wants. He’s the guy that made Biggie.’”

The interview also shed some light on a bizarre story from earlier in Electronica’s career, where the rapper apparently made a fake website in order for it to appear that he signed with Bad Boy. Chav explained that he and Jay made a demo tape that featured beats from Mr. Porter and J Dilla, dropping “hundreds of them everywhere around the Bad Boy building.” They eventually set up a meeting with the label, but nothing ever came of it.

On “Shiny Suit Theory,” Jay opened his verse paraphrasing a conversation that he and Diddy had about Jay’s career. He raps:

Me and Puff, we was chilling in Miami
He said, “Nigga fuck the underground, you need to win a Grammy
For your mama and your family, they need to see you shined up
You built a mighty high ladder, let me see you climb up
Nigga what you scared of?
Terrorize these artificial rap niggas and spread love, pollinate they ear buds
Like you supposed to, spit it for the culture
Pay no attention to the critics and the vultures

Chav recalled the story behind that conversation, explaining that it took place after Jay Electronica released his Act I: The Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) project.

“I remember we were in my house after Eternal Sunshine dropped, and Puffy called him up on video chat and we were just on iChat video with Puffy and Cassie” Chav recalled. “And the next day he went to Miami. That’s the line from ‘Shiny Suit Theory’: ‘Me and Puff, we was chilling in Miami…’ And we were like, ‘Oh shit, this time it’s going down for real!’”

There was controversy around Jay’s 2010 signing, as Rolling Stone covered. At the time, Diddy tweeted obliquely about feeling betrayed, which prompted a response from Electronica. Later, Diddy clarified that he did not feel any hostility towards Electronica or JAY-Z.

“I’m not mad at anyone! [JAY-Z] was not the friend I was referring [to] be clear,” Diddy wrote. “Jay Electronica, I proud of you! I’m happy for you. I love you! I congratulate you. I’m not mad at you! All I wanna do is see you win!”

Though he never signed with Bad Boy, Jay and Diddy did collaborate once, on the Quincy Tones-produced [“The Ghost of Christopher Wallace

In March, Jay Electronica hinted that he was working on a joint record with JAY, though no further info has surfaced. The same week the DJBooth interview was published, four Jay Electronica songs leaked online

Genius broke down Jay Electronica’s “Exhibit C” bars in the episode of Check The Rhyme below.

Read the full lyrics to “Shiny Suit Theory” and the rest of Jay Electronica’s discography on Genius now.