I remember stumbling upon the album in my college freshman year dorm room after a few music blogs I followed posted about it. Never having heard of the artist, I downloaded the album off of Bandcamp and hit play. A Harry Potter sample (specifically, the “come on then, let’s go lower” by Harry and the “oh no” by Ron) blared out of my speakers, supported by alien-like guitars and blown-out drums. Hearing my childhood presented in this way intrigued me enough to keep listening. About twenty seconds into the second song, I was hooked.
Listen: Jai Paul – Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)
To me, the most memorable music is music that is immersive and transportive: it fully submerges you into a world that the artist has created and crafted, waiting to be explored. Jai Paul’s much-talked-about leaked album, released unfortunately premature in 2013, and one of my favorites of all time, excels at this, transporting me to all kinds of different locales and moods. A mostly unfinished, mythical project is one of the best albums of the 2010s.
The second song, the song that really hooked me in, “Str8 Outta Mumbai”, opens with a barrage of tablas, a chorus of “Ooh-ooh-ooh”s, slices of synth-like guitar, and a female voice saying, “Mm…special”, almost as a sign of what’s to come. Glorious arpeggios of synths and flying lasers swirl around Jai Paul’s voice, while a kick drum and some clever production (more on this later) gives the song a swaying, spacey, 3D feeling. Throughout the song, you can hear little snippets of melodies heard throughout Bollywood music, in between Jai’s longing to talk to someone but not knowing what to say or do. This use of Bollywood samples was special to me, and the flawless execution of this song, capped by the gorgeous Hindi sample near the end of the song, has kept it in my rotation for years and among my favorite songs of all time. It immediately reminded me of growing up, listening to my parents’ Bollywood CDs in our minivan on long road trips. As an Indian-American myself, hearing this seamless blend of what I heard during my upbringing and my more Western taste in music basically blew my mind.
The rest of the album, while not as immediately stunning as “Str8 Outta Mumbai” (which I legitimately think is one of the top five songs of the decade), is just as incredible in terms of the amount of things going on in each song. Somehow, Jai Paul manages to fit so many sounds, so many details into each song without creating a claustrophobic feeling. Instead, the maximalist sound he cultivates throughout the sub-40 minute runtime of this project is one that invites the listener into a murky sci-fi world where yes, cars do fly, it’s perpetually nighttime, and the city and its towering skyscrapers are lit up with the thousands of lives that inhabit it. Technology permeates this universe in a way that is disconcerting yet necessary, ubiquitous but suffocating.
There’s “Genevieve (Unfinished)”, where Jai talks about a former lover that he so desperately longs for—he smirks and laughs throughout this song, almost as if he knows that she wants him too. Listening to this track sounds like you’re speeding along a highway, lights flashing past at an almost dizzying speed, and then the song fades away shortly before the stunning outro hits, and suddenly you’re out in an open field, with those same flying cars now zooming all around you, wind blasting in your face as you spin around trying to reorient yourself.
Or there’s “jasmine – demo”, a sultry, sluggish song with booming bass and sly guitar licks that inexplicably fills my head with images of floating through an underwater city. All of the songs on this project are so good at creating these environments I imagine myself in, soundtracking these moments perfectly. I find myself coming back to this album constantly, longing to be transported to those distinct places that are mysterious and dark and so fun.
What is it about Jai Paul’s music that creates this unique feeling? I’ve searched for similar types of music, and while numerous copycats have certainly popped up, there’s only one Jai Paul, only one artist capable of making such timeless and tantalizing music. There’s his use of sidechaining, a production technique that essentially makes a kick drum just burst through the mix. Take, for example, his cover of “Crush” (which gave this website its name)—the bass hits you like a ton of bricks.
There’s also the brilliant way Jai uses negative space in his music. The whole project is full of stops and starts, pauses, glitches, that embrace the silence that his otherwise-maximalist music leaves space for. This contrast gives the whole project a raw feeling, one that seems wholly intentional and deliberate despite it being a collection of mostly unfinished tracks. It is often unfathomable to think that here was a kid working on this kind of music for six years — in his late teens to his early twenties, Jai was making absolute gems that had yet to be polished.
Which brings us to Jai Paul himself, his silky voice wavering in and out of the mix. Take the enrapturing closer, “BTSTU – Demo”, a stunning track with bass that quivers like jello, snippets of distortion, and synths and lasers zipping around the track. It innocently starts with Jai softly oohing, before him warning his listeners, “Don’t fuck with me”, all in an airy falsetto that fits perfectly in between the bursts of sound. Before one particularly busy and dizzyingly great section (1:42, to be exact), you can hear Jai let out a deep “uh”, before he reverts back to his falsetto coos, and letting the calmness of the track return. “So don’t try and fuck me about”, he says. He’s back and wants what is his, as he declares throughout the song. Horns come in at the end, as Jai gives off a triumphant whoop that can barely be heard as the music fades out.
The music industry, mainstream and underground, have shared a love for Jai Paul despite his low-key profile. Drake and Beyonce directly sampled “BTSTU – Demo”, while others have expressed their admiration on Twitter and through their own music (especially the aforementioned copycats). The fact that a notoriously silent 24-year old’s unfinished and unpolished album shook the music world is enough to boggle the mind; take one listen of this project, however, and it’ll all make sense.
And now, seven years after the album leaked online, the music world waits for whatever Jai is cooking next. He released two songs, “He” and “Do You Love Her Now” upon his return earlier this year, tracks that were apparently being made around the time the album leaked, yet fully polished and definitively finished. The first track features panning synths that spin around your head and a delightful guitar amidst Jai practically growling in an airy, playful way. On the latter, reverb-y guitars, falsetto “ooh”s and a stadium-ready sound wash over the ears. They’re both brilliant, reminding us that Jai Paul’s music is not merely a flash in the pan; it’s the work of a musical mastermind who has yet to reach his creative peak.
Take a trip back in time to Jai Paul’s MySpace page (last updated in 2010); for me, this relic of the late 2000s-Internet era really drives home the point that the music he made is timeless. Take a look at the broken Flash, the gaudy space background, and the myriad of legendary influences from J Dilla to Prince to D’Angelo. The testimonials from what seem to be mostly names that have faded into irrelevancy (with the exception of Rostam of Vampire Weekend fame). The hilarious, totally on-brand bio, featuring a Hotmail email:
whats goin on my names jai im a artist/producer jst startin out in the game
let me kno if u feel it… thanks 2every1 whos been backin me i rly appreciate it
peace
jai
jaipaul@hotmail.co.uk
Seeing all of this earnestness and genuine artistry from such a young creative makes the following devastating leak of his unfinished product all the more heartbreaking. We’ll never know what the polished version of this collection of songs would be like. But that doesn’t stop me from admiring it for what it is: the brilliance of a raw, perfectionist artist in his bedroom, tinkering away, wearing his influences on his sleeve yet creating an entirely unique sound, one that is impossible to recreate.
(A not-so-brief aside: Seven years ago, the Internet was very different from what it is today. In 2013, it was growing out of infancy, streaming music services weren’t too big yet, and social media was only just starting to morph into the behemoth that it is today. But the remnants of the joy of discovery were still around. Listening to Jai Paul’s album reminds me of those earlier years of the Internet, when discovering a new album was all the more exciting because of the endless possibilities of the Internet.
Spotify and Apple Music and all of those other music services, while great for letting all the music you could want be at your fingertips, definitely remove some of that joy of discovery. It’s hard to not listen to those algorithm-driven playlists that show up at the top of your feed every morning. It’s easy, and it’s an ensured dopamine hit to the brain. Before Jai Paul’s album hit these apps, listening to this leak (on iTunes, because I had to store the actual MP3s!) felt like a quiet rebellion against these streaming services; from the obviously uncleared Harry Potter samples to the rough quality of the mix, it took me back to those earlier days of the Internet.
Of course, I realize that it’s a moot point; the album is now on Spotify, and I almost exclusively use Spotify to consume music. But it’s nice, every now and then, to remind myself of those days of early music discovery, of truly finding something because you really did find it, and not because of some algorithm telling me what I should be listening to. And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg on my sentiments on these streaming services. But I’ll save that for another post.)
Perhaps the most rewarding part of Jai Paul’s album is how many new sounds I discover each time I hit play. Every time, I hear a little production quirk, a sonic zap, a digital stutter that makes me shake my head in disbelief. Each track on here is like a never-ending treasure chest, each listen yielding something new and exciting about it that you missed the first time. I eagerly await whatever Jai Paul has planned for the music world next, and can’t wait to see where he takes us.