Jakey: A life worth living, despite all of the dead
Jacob Matthew “Jakey” Christensen is a multifaceted media presence. Starting initially as a notable Youtuber on his channel “NakeyJakey,” which has garnered around two million subscribers and 200 million views, Christensen has also pursued music more casually under the simplified pseudonym of Jakey.
His music career has had a much more suspenseful history, as shown by the timeline under which his latest extended play (EP), “ROMCOM” was released. To start off, on Dec. 20, 2021, Christensen dropped a single titled “Pine Barrens,” the first song he had released in just over two years. The next day, a music video for the song was released to his NakeyJakey channel, along with a teaser for a second track, which ended up being titled “DRIVE OFF A BRIDGE.” The larger EP was announced then as well, but nothing else for it was teased until its eventual release in December 2022, despite an original release date of Valentine’s Day, ten months prior.
This postponement was a little disappointing for me, as it was one of the few albums I had made an attempt to keep up with until its release. When the release finally came, though, all previous disappointments faded. From “DRIVE OFF A BRIDGE” to “FAT HEAD” every single piece fits into the simple yet endearing puzzle of the EP. The beats are simultaneously dramatic yet ethereal, with the ability to metaphorically “take you to the sky.” The album as a whole stands as a weird mind’s masterpiece, demarcated by a litany of strong introductions to each song, which give them a certain flair.
Christensen’s musical audiences’ uncertainty about what would happen with his music does not start there, though. Rather, this throughline takes us back to Nov. 4, 2016, with his first, more public, release of his music. Before the song "Cafeteria,” whose music video was released on the aforementioned date, Christensen had kept his music pursuits to the popular streaming platform, Soundcloud. This made fans of the Youtuber take particular notice of this work, as to them it hinted at his music career taking a larger part of his public life. “Cafeteria,” however, helps showcase a notable quality of much of the work that follows this: his expertise in sampling. The song itself opens with a clip from the Disney Channel original movie, My Date with the President’s Daughter. Similarly to the end of the “Pine Barrens” video, Jakey announces a larger project amid this one as well.
This project was a teaser for an album, “Coming Maybe Soon,” stated to be titled Dead Friends. This album has yet to be released. The album's surmisable themes, though, have continued to be hinted at in the released singles between “Cafeteria” and—ironically enough—his single “Not Dead Yet,” released in July 2019. This release marked a notable sonic change in Christensen’s sound. Unlike the Dead Friends era, utilizing sounds from a more rap-centric style and sampling galore, “Not Dead Yet” is notable for its optimistic sounds and lyricism. This single becomes even more of a head-scratcher when the eventual “ROMCOM” era’s sound is brought into the conversation. “ROMCOM” differentiates itself with a focus on soulful instrumentation and vocal sounds alongside lyrics surrounding mental health, romance, and the interplay between the two.
I feel Christensen’s references to pop culture and nostalgia are what make his music unparalleled. They make the listeners who understand them feel like they are in on something together, as well as adding a heightened sense of personality. Christensen’s music, put simply, is a brilliantly weird combination of pop culture, nostalgia, rap, rhythm and blues (R&B), and Christensen’s own sense of self. I would highly recommend Jakey to any music fans who want to experience him themselves.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons