To the surprise of many Jay Electronica fans, the New Orleans-bred artist took to Twitter early on Friday morning (Feb. 7) to, once again, announce the impending arrival of his debut album.
“Album done,” he wrote, adding “…my debut album featuring Hov man this is highway robbery.”
According to Jay’s tweets, the album seems to have been renamed A Written Testimony and will feature JAY-Z. Furthermore, despite the fact that Jay has been teasing the project since 2007, he revealed that the album will not include any old music. Instead, A Written Testimony was created over a 40-day, 40-night stretch, which started on Dec. 26.
“Recorded over 40 days and 40 nights, starting from Dec 26,” Jay tweeted.
He also gave an official release date for the album.
“Releasing in 40 days,” he wrote, putting the project’s drop date at March 18.
A Written Testimony was first billed as Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn)—Jay’s follow-up effort to his 2007 debut mixtape, Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge). The artist began teasing Act II the same year that Act I was released and fans had expected it to drop in 2009.
In 2010, Jay announced that he had signed to JAY-Z’s Roc Nation label and again teased the release of Act II the following year. In 2016, Jay once again announced the record’s forthcoming release on Twitter.
Despite not putting out a full-length project since 2007, Jay has fed his fans over the year with a series of one-off singles, including collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, JAY-Z, Prodigy and more. He most recently teamed up with Dave East and 070 Phi on “Hoodie (Nothin’ To Lose).”
Although some fans appear hesitant to embrace the news, a few Twitter co-signs have helped legitimize the announcement. For example, JAY-Z liked both of Jay Elec’s tweets and Young Guru and Just Blaze, who are frequent Jay collaborators, also shared their own messages.
“Are you watching closely?” Just Blaze tweeted on Friday (Feb. 7).
“Facts!!!!!!” wrote Young Guru. “This is not a drill.”
While some fans are celebrating the news, others aren’t so quick to believe it. See some Twitter reactions below.