The Ambitious Journey of Jaden Smith
Part 1 of a two-part series covering Jaden Smith and his most recent album, SYRE. Part 1 is a broader look at Jaden, MSFTSrep, and SYRE. Link to Part 2.
Some of the best traces of Will and Jada have manifest in their son, Jaden. Like Will, he’s a showman who basks in the limelight — entertaining, interesting, and funny. Unlike Will, he’s counter-cultural — brazen, outspoken, an enigma more akin to Jada. Like both, he’s a workhorse, dedicating time and energy toward his endeavors while striving for improvement. A 19 year-old who has endured fame’s magnification throughout childhood and puberty, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith uses criticism for fuel but ultimately, strives to be held in the same regard as his idols, undisputed legends like Cudi, Kanye, and Jimi Hendrix. Jaden’s far from this level of esteem, but his youth paired with audacity and drive make the journey seem possible.
In the eyes of post-millennials (generation Z), Jaden is already seen as a leading figure. A major reason why is his brainchild and collective, MSFTsrep, which he started in February of 2013 and references 16 times across SYRE. It is eerily reminiscent of Kanye West’s creative infrastructure — a condensed version of DONDA + G.O.O.D. Music and YEEZY Supply packaged into one. Sure, there are tangible products — music & clothes — but similar to DONDA, its asset with the most potential is the intangible one— the brand. The overarching goal of MSFTSrep is to create a collective conscious, a zeitgeist with broader themes. The mission is succinct, “dedicated to supporting and waking up the population of planet earth, through attaining knowledge and personal growth.” Its origins are genuine. “This republic truly started with the feelings and emotions of wanting to transform the conditioned mind sets of the masses into a more creative freely flowing environment — an environment in which one is free to experiment & is not judged for expressing oneself.” With West, desperate attempts to garner support and a laughably unrealistic org chart signaled poor leadership and mental instability, bringing DONDA’s development to an abrupt standstill. Alternatively, with Smith, a disciplined, inclusive approach did well to resonate with a young audience, spurring grassroots momentum for MSFTSrep. A group of creatives, the team recruits with contagious energy, embedding their maxims in the subconscious of new MSFTs. They are passionate, talented, and building quite the impressive resume — in July, they formed a partnership with Roc Nation for the release of SYRE.
The Album
SYRE, released on November 17th via MSFTS & Roc Nation is the first album from Jaden Smith since February of 2014 — quite the hibernation away from music. Some tracks, like the 4 song intro (covered in-depth on Part 2), were tinkered with over the entirety of this gap, turning the album into a time capsule infused with three formative years of adolescence. Despite the almost 4 year hiatus, at 17 tracks and 70 minutes, SYRE overstays Jaden’s welcome back to the music realm and at times, is exhausting.
SYRE tires due to unnecessary length, forced emulation, and misplaced experimentation that is too hellbent on being inventive. SYRE is deliberately abstract, but the story lacks structure and the decisions that are made seem random. The latter half of the album is really solid, but consists mainly of trap-forward bangers that fail to align with the brooding, melodic tone he sets in the first half, leading us to question whether the album has a concept at all. With writing, Jaden takes a stream of consciousness approach— “whenever I’m making songs, I am pretty much . . . freestyling them into existence.” While this method does enhance Jaden’s ability to bring raw emotion to life, it also leads to lackadaisical lyrics in scatterbrained tracks that are prone to rambling. The ~13.5 minute intro is an obvious example, more subtle is Track 9, “Lost Boy”. For starters, all the lengthy track really consists of are improvised verses and shoutouts, like a longer, more acoustic “30 Hours”, but devoid of anything to keep us interested or entertained. Furthermore, Jaden literally copies Kanye verbatim, saying, “check it out, this the bonus track, this the bonus. My favorite albums used to have the bonus track, you know what I’m saying.” Sure, it’s paying homage, but another interpretation is that because Jaden is inspired by Kanye, he thinks he can do Kanye things on his records, like put a 9.5 minute bonus track halfway through his album. You see a pattern of this throughout, from the resemblance album protagonist Syre has to the character “Boy” from Childish Gambino’s Camp to the schizophrenic level of genre-hopping likely motivated from listening to Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Even the singles aren’t safe, with “Watch Me” coming across like a store brand version of Kanye’s “Black Skinhead”. My chief complaint is that rather than choosing to stumble through the unknown and forge his own identity, Jaden is influenced to the point of imitation by the unique nuances of his role models.
Now that I’ve picked apart the bad, let’s acknowledge the good, at times, even brilliant moments.
First and foremost, the production on SYRE is a gold mine, from Lido’s commanding opus of an intro to Ricky Eat Acid’s static-induced reveries Jaden narrates over on the outro. With this powerful base layer keeping the album hot, we’re ready for Jaden to bring the fire. Aside from flashes on “Breakfast” and “Falcon”, it’s SYRE’s latter half that houses Jaden’s refined and revitalized flow. Start with “Icon”, the most streamed track from the album, showcasing Jaden at peak confidence. Each bar is delivered in stylistic staccato, seasoned with ad-libs so you can’t help but sing along and rock to it like Westbrook getting ready to hoop. Next, skip forward a bit until you get to “George Jeff”, the verses with the best cadence and most swagger. References in that 2-minute track alone: Cannes, Rich the Kid, Harry Potter in a Benz, RAF Simmons, Oompa Loompas, and obviously, George Jefferson. Yes, it’s extravagant, but it’s also a hell of a time.
Outside of Jaden’s rapping, I’m most impressed by his vulnerability. SYRE is an extremely honest record filled to the brim with emotion as the Jaden who tweets in absurdities, strives to be understood. Love, both lost and found, is the dominant theme of the album. At times, it is over-dramatic, but that’s what makes it relatable. In youth, it’s normal to exaggerate the gravity of a situation based on how you feel in the moment. The reason this happens iis that most of your experiences are uncharted territory — they’re happening for the first time. We can take Jaden’s broken heart seriously because of its youthful sincerity. The ended relationship we witness in SYRE might have been the one he fell the deepest in love. Even though I criticize some tracks, they still serve well to help convey who Jaden is. In “Lost Boy”, we get an extended look at his insecurity toward feeling different, something he’s usually so proud of. Throughout SYRE, we hear Jaden constantly pushing himself, chasing the ghosts of his idols in an existential race. He knows that even if he reaches this self-determined finish line, he may not feel like the race is over. Regardless, if he keeps running, the music world stands better off. Who knows? Maybe one day, he’ll sit at the top and watch someone chase a legacy that’s his own.
