Jay Electronica has made his allegiance to the Nation of Islam face tattoo official. On Sunday (January 30), the Roc Nation rapper added some fresh ink to his body in honor of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the NOI.
The work of London-based tattoo artist Olivier Tattoo, the tattoo features the name “Farrakhan” in script font and sits above Jay Electronica’s left eyebrow. The New Orleans native posted a close-up of his face tat on Instagram soundtracked by his and Westside Gunn’s Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B collaboration “Free Kutter.”
“As my sweet mother would say… ‘Well son, fuckem,'” Jay Electronica wrote as the caption.
Jay Electronica, who is currently in the U.K. for a string of shows, has made no secret of his adoration for Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, the Black nationalist religious organization founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
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His long-awaited 2020 debut album, A Written Testimony, is peppered with speeches from Farrakhan, while songs such as “Universal Soldier” and “Ezekiel’s Wheel” find the spiritual MC invoking Elijah Muhammad, the revered NOI leader and Malcolm X mentor who served from 1934 until his death in 1975.
Farrakhan even wrote a letter defending Jay Electronica in 2014 following his performance at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, which received backlash from some corners of the NOI due to his use of “profanity” on stage while wearing a Fruit of Islam uniform.
Minister Farrakhan hasn’t been without his own controversy, of course. The 88-year-old leader has repeatedly been accused of making homophobic and anti-Semitic statements, and in 2019 was banned from Facebook and Instagram under their policies against dangerous individuals and organizations.
On the music front, Jay Electronica recently appeared on Curren$y’s Pilot Talk 4, delivering a guest verse on “AD6” that blew the Jet Life general away. With Donda 2 slated for a February 22 release, the elusive lyricist appears to be angling for another collaboration with Kanye West.