Jeymes Samuel, the multi-talented evil genius behind The Bullitts, spoke to Life +Times recently about his music, his new film They Die By Dawn (screening this Saturday, March 16th at SXSW--stay tuned for more info!) and his love for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, among other topics. Perhaps the most intriguing jewel he dropped though is about his work on the definitely-existent and apparently-amazing but as-yet-unheard Jay Electronica LP Act II: The Patents Of Nobility (the turn), which is still in Roc Nation limbo. So far the main pay-off of Jay Elec-Jeymes collabo seems to be that in patented Hov style, Jay-Z has scooped up The Bullitts to work on the soundtrack for the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle The Great Gatsby with him. Read what Samuel's comments on Jay Elec below and scroll down for Michael K. Williams' in-depth Okayplayer TV interview about They Die By Dawn and working with Erykah Badu.
On working with Jay Electronica:
I’m probably the only person. I headlined Big Chill in Summer 2011 as The Bullitts; I had Lucy Liu on stage narrating all of her parts from the album, and my side guy was Jay Electronica, who’s supposed to be one of the most elusive men not only in hip-hop, but in show business. Sometimes I’d ask, “How come you’ve always been on anything I ask you to? Whenever I ask you to do something, you do it no question.” He goes, “What’s admirable about you Jeymes, is your whole aim is based around planned excellence.” So that’s why he always does guest appearances with me when I ask him to. Our chemistry is amazing. He’s my brother, we bonded. The [friendship] just came from running up and down, driving around and different things, and then the music came. He saw me playing guitar and he was like, “This is the guy to do my album!” And we just really got on musically. If you listen to “Eternal Sunshine,” he’ll take Jon Brion‘s score, and assemble it in what would be called an overture, a compilation of all the different musical series, and rhyme over the whole thing and call it “Act I.” Within it, he’ll put samples of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and Gene Wilder talking. These things are some of my favorite films and my biggest influences. That’s why our chemistry is so much fun to see. It’s a really easy thing. I can create a track for Jay Electronica tomorrow and not even present it to him, I just know it’s something that he’ll think is super-amazing. I will say this: his album is a masterpiece. A masterpiece. We live in a world where the bar is four. Before, the bar was ten. Jay Electronica as an MC is from a time where the bar was 10. He’s amazing.
