Jai Paul is a bit of a mystery man at the moment, disappearing a little more with each release. After his second demo track “Jasmine” he seems to have utterly evaporated from the scene. No press releases, no promos, no interviews. All this from a man signed to one of the UK’s largest labels XL Recordings.
It seems like a strange situation for someone who’s first track was sampled by some of the biggest artists in the world at the moment – Drake, Pusha-T, Beyonce…
His first release “BTSTU (edit)” is remarkably unusual piece UK funk. Difficult to classify or pidgin hole, BTSTU is a near perfect blending of electro and soul. Imagine Calvin Harris… If he was good or indeed, had any integrity at all. Or perhaps a fairer comparison would be to say he’s a British Frank Ocean, but that’s a statement that compliments neither artist.
BTSTU is short, competent and fresh pop music, even although its more than a year old now. Urban rhythm and blues vocals draped over a fierce but articulate, ever-present bass line. The one unmistakable quality is the sheer amount of promise that’s on show.
BTSTU was then followed by the non release of a track called “Jasmine (demo)”. Available only on his seemingly abandoned MySpace account, Jasmine is a definite nod to Prince’s funk, albeit filtered and processed through the lens of a 2012 mystery producer.
can you hear me jasmine can you let me in would you let me over let me love you jasmine it's because I see you is it cause I knew she got the jasmine jasmine
There was talk of an EP about eight months back, but nothing ever surfaced and all mention of which seems to be scrubbed from the web. His début album is still scheduled for 2012, as it yet remains unnamed and as December draws closer and closer, I’d say that it may suffer a similar fate.
Being mysterious and cool is all good when your making music, after all, it frees a listener from the shackles of PR men and allows for a more transparent interpretation of the material. But when you’ve got the world’s attention, you’d better make use of it.
Then again its very possible XL are fucking him with bullshit release schedules and exclusivity deals…
Oh, and for anyone wondering, “BTSTU” stands for “Batistuta”. Now you know.