Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)

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On the second movement "Eternal Sunshine", he frames Act I by setting his role as a metaphysician. He proclaims his genre to be "God-hop" and denounces traditional hip-hop, but admits that its rewards are tempting. [2] The third movement, "…Because He Broke the Rules", begins with a Willy Wonka sample where the title character yells at a boy for stealing Fizzy Lifting Drinks, thus preventing the boy from receiving his prize. This sample serves as a metaphor for the high demands that a romantic relationship can impose on each person as Jay Electronica raps about being emotionally broken and lonely. He evokes the duality of good and evil with the left-and-right sides of his brain. [2]

On the fourth movement "Voodoo Man", the title character has three different incarnations for each verse. In the first incarnation, the Voodoo Man is a rapper "who can turn nothing into something." In the second incarnation, the Voodoo Man becomes the "Asiatic Black Man of East Asia", derived from Nation of Islam theology, who uses an unidentified flying object to travel to New Orleans, Japan, and Tepoztlán. The final incarnation is the same Voodoo Man but with no regard for humanity. He compares colonialism to modern hip-hop. [2] Jay Electronica also praises Elijah Muhammad, former leader of the Nation of Islam. [7] The fifth and final movement, "FYI", opens with a sampled speech from Muhammad. [2] [7] Jay Electronica reflects on man's relatively short time on Earth and contrasts a rapper's obsession with jewelry to the larger-scale declassification of UFO files by CNES. "Lucifer" is described as the condition that humankind battles with. [2]

Release and promotion

Jay Electronica released Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) onto his Myspace on July 2, 2007, while he was still a relatively unknown rapper. It had no formal promotion, but garnered over 50,000 downloads within the first 30 days of its posting. [2] Thus, the mixtape has been described as Jay Electronica's breakout project. [9] He previously released the second movement as a demo track onto MySpace and received positive reception. [1] The mixtape was rereleased onto the streaming service Tidal on July 2, 2016. [10]

Critical reception

In 2010, Matt Diehl of Interview described Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) as "a 15-minute musique concrete surreal symphony". [11] That same year, The Guardian 's Paul Lester compared parts of the mixtape to American musician Ariel Pink. [12] In 2013, Ryan Bassil from Vice noted the mixtape's lack of drums and called it "a timeless classic". [4] In 2017, Adam Isaac Itkoff, writing for Okayplayer, revisited the mixtape for its ten-year anniversary and described it as "one of the most fearlessly experimental rap releases to ever dawn upon the digital age". [5] In 2020, Dhruva Balram from NME wrote that the mixtape was "a change of pace in an age where everything was auto-tuned." [13] That same year, Brendan Klinkenberg of Rolling Stone described it as weird and dense but praised the rapping, stating that it allowed Jay Electronica to be "quickly hailed as the genre's next great hope." [8]

Track listing

The mixtape plays as one singular track, but has five separate movements: [2] [14]

Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)
Eternal Sunshine The Pledge cover art.jpg
Mixtape by
ReleasedJuly 2, 2007
Genre Hip hop
Length15:40
Label Self-published
Jay Electronica chronology
Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)
(2007)
A Written Testimony
(2020)
Alternative cover
Act 1 Eternal Sunshine - The Pledge TIDAL cover art.jpg
Commercial cover art, which replaces the original since the 2016 Tidal re-release.
No.TitleLength
1."Foreword" (performed by Erykah Badu and Just Blaze) 
2."Eternal Sunshine" 
3."...Because He Broke The Rules" 
4."Voodoo Man" 
5."FYI" 
Total length:15:40

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