The Blinding (song)

Robert Blair of HotNewHipHop praised Travis Scott's (pictured) hook, but wrote that his guest appearance seemed like "a cynical attempt to attract younger listeners".

In July 2007, Jay Electronica released his debut mixtape Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge).[1] The mixtape has been described as his breakout project.[2] Soon after, Jay Electronica announced his next project as Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn); the album would go on to face years of delays and has never been released.[3] In 2010, Jay Electronica met American rapper Jay-Z by chance at a birthday celebration for Atlantic Records COO Julie Greenwald at The Spotted Pig.[4] The meeting was followed by "weeks of intense daily communication and creative courtship" related to Jay-Z wanting to sign Jay Electronica to his record label Roc Nation.[5] This led to their first collaboration, "Shiny Suit Theory", and on November 12, 2010, Jay Electronica officially announced that he had signed to Roc Nation.[5][3] American rapper Travis Scott released his debut mixtape Owl Pharaoh in 2013.[6]

In 2017, a video from the NBA All-Star Game showed Jay-Z pleading to Jay Electronica to release an album.[3] In December 2018, Jay-Z was in contact with Scott in an attempt to convince him not to perform at the Super Bowl LIII halftime show.[7] On February 6, 2020, after nearly thirteen years of delays, Jay Electronica announced that he completed his debut album A Written Testimony.[3][8] Jay Electronica recorded the album in "40 days and 40 nights", beginning on December 26, 2019.[8] On March 12, 2020, Apple Music revealed the track listing for A Written Testimony through Twitter. The track listing, written in the Arabic language, included ten tracks with guest appearances from Scott on "The Blinding" and The-Dream on "Ezekiel's Wheel" and the previously released "Shiny Suit Theory".[9] Mitch Findlay of HotNewHipHop noted that "some were suspicious upon seeing Travis Scott as one of the lone features" on the album.[10] Scott also provides vocals on the sixth track "Universal Soldier", along with James Blake.[11] Jay-Z appears uncredited on eight out of ten tracks.[12]

The production of "The Blinding" is split into two parts; the song begins with "a classically lumbering beat from Swizz Beatz" and AraabMuzik before abruptly switching to the second part produced by Hit-Boy and G. Ry.[13][14] Scott sings the song's hook with Auto-Tune.[15] Jay Electronica enunciates each syllable in his verses.[14] Jay Electronica makes a tongue-in-cheek allusion to his deliberate tardiness; he speaks about his anxiety in releasing his debut album, which took nearly thirteen years to release.[3][10][16] Jay Electronica also raps about his record label boss Jay-Z pressuring him to release the album.[16][17] Jay Electronica and Jay-Z go back-and-forth trading verses with one another, but with spacing between each verse.[10][18]

Mitch Findley of HotNewHipHop rated the song as "Very Hottttt" and compared Jay Electronica and Jay-Z's back-and-forth delivery to the latter's collaborative album with American rapper Kanye West, Watch the Throne (2011).[10] Findlay described "The Blinding" as one of the "most immediate and sonically intriguing cuts" from A Written Testimony, but noted that Scott's feature sounded more like a vocal sample.[10] Robert Blair, also writing for HotNewHipHop, wrote that the trading of verses allowed Jay-Z to prove that he was still worthy of his early career legacy and that Jay Electronica is a "worthy sparring partner".[13] Blair wrote that though Scott's feature seemed like "a cynical attempt to attract younger listeners", his hook added "to the overall effect rather than sounding like a marketing-oriented compromise".[13] Brody Kenny of HipHopDX noted that the spacing out of verses between Jay Electronica and Jay-Z let "their words really sink in".[18]

Credits are adapted from Tidal.[11]