There’s not too much genuine criticism in the rap world. Surely, some academic stuff gets published that chronicles the story that we all know to a certain extent, but then might add a bit of an historical twist. But what passes for album reviews and the like very seldom includes any sort of perspective and invariably follows a track by track approach to dissecting a release – I’m as guilty of this particular approach as anyone.

All of that might be partially based upon the fact that there’s not always that much to say about guys rapping about new shoes, walking down the street or driving around in a car. But the job of a critic is to understand a work as an individual entity as well as being able to conceive of it as a part of some larger movement without necessarily setting forth either take as the gospel.

A write up of Victory from Jay Electronica is able to do basically everything that a good review should do. Its author, odeisel, is able to figure Jay Electro’s proper place in the culture – as a go between. The emcee is at once a new time phenomenon, culling influence from his background which found him living all over the country, but perpetually references old rap tropes to tie it all together.

Beyond that, though, the fact that Victory, despite it being nothing more than an assemblage of various stray shots, arrived as such a tremendous effort probably made seeing the proper place of the disc and its creator a bit easier. Regardless of its import, though, Jay Electro has once again released a disc that surpasses a great many of the current chart toping folks.

There’s such a vast array of art, literature and music references made throughout the hour and change of music here that it’s virtually impossible to round them all up. That being said, the disc’s first track – all of which are unnamed – finds Jay Electro making mention of recently deceased author Kurt Vonnegut. And that’s just for starters.

Being as opinionated as he is, it doesn’t take too long for this emcee to get at some of the folks that he perceives to be political monsters. So, while Rumsfeld is diced up, Jay Electro moves on to talk about rap culture and how there seem to be as many similarities inherent in it as differences. At the beginning of track nine, the rapper explains folks might not all love songs about chains, but there are people that can talk about the tangible wants and needs of people while remaining interesting. Of course, Cuban Linx… is mentioned, which makes sense not just because that disc will remain a classic, but because Jay Electro has had his foot in the NYC pool of rap, just like he’s been in most others.

It’d be difficult to dissect each disparate aspect of Victory that makes it such an easy listen. But since this is just a cobbled together compilation, listeners should continue wondering what a proper disc from this rapper is gonna sound like. Keep waiting.