FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Taylor
Part Thirty-Eight: Jhené Aiko
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I am going to bring in a few interviews…
PHOTO CREDIT: ICM Partners
through this feature to illustrate Jhené Aiko. A couple of weeks ago her new album, Chilombo, was nominated for Album of the Year (it lost out to Taylor Swift’s folklore). I will come to that but, before I move on, it is worth bringing in some general biographical information about an incredible artist:
“Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo (/dʒəˈneɪ ˈaɪkoʊ/; born March 16, 1988) is an American singer and songwriter, who embarked on her music career contributing vocals and appearing in several music videos for R&B group B2K. At the time, she was known as B2K member Lil' Fizz's "cousin", though she is not actually related to him. It was used as a marketing tool, suggested by Sony and Epic Records to promote Aiko through group and cultivate her own following. In 2003, Aiko was set to release her debut album, My Name Is Jhené, through her labels Sony, The Ultimate Group and Epic; however, the album was never released, with Aiko eventually asking to be released from the label in order to continue her education.
In March 2011, Aiko made her return to music with the release of her first full-length project, a mixtape titled Sailing Soul(s). On December 16, 2011, Aiko signed a recording contract with American record producer No I.D.'s record label ARTium, distributed through Def Jam Recordings. In 2013, Aiko appeared on Big Sean's single "Beware", also featuring Lil Wayne, which became her first top 40 single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In November 2013, she released her first project for Artium and Def Jam, an extended play (EP), titled Sail Out. The EP was supported by the singles "3:16AM", "Bed Peace" and "The Worst", the latter of which went on to become certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Aiko released her major-label debut album, Souled Out, on September 9, 2014. On September 22, 2017, she released her second studio album Trip. On March 6, 2020, she released her third studio album, Chilombo, which earned Aiko three Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year”.
I want to start by discussing her previous album, 2017’s Trip. I think that Chilombo is a great album, though Aiko’s best work is still ahead of her. Trip is an incredible album that won praise. In an interview with Rookie Mag, Aiko discussed the album and what she has learned from her time in the industry to that point (her debut studio album, Souled Out, arrived in 2014):
“Jhené Aiko’s latest album, Trip, is a sonic exploration of grief, love, and enlightenment. The 22-track LP is filled with keenly honest writing about some of Aiko’s darkest moments. The concept album is filled with silvery, airy songs that can be played on loop—much like the rollercoaster of emotions it works to emulate. The album is one part of Aiko’s M.A.P (which stands for movie, album, poetry) project which includes a film, and a soon to be released poetry book.
DIAMOND SHARP: Your new album is out. Can you tell me about the thought process behind the album?
JHENÉ AIKO: A lot of it came from my notebooks. I’ve been keeping notebooks since I was really young, and since the death of my big brother. I guess what’s different this time around is that I really just referred to my notebook. I made this short film, and I made the album, and then I made the poetry book all just referring to these notebooks that I’ve been keeping. It became extra personal and super honest because it was literally just me referring to my diary. I just wanted to give it my all. There’s 22 songs because I didn’t want to compromise the story at all. It’s been a long time in the making. M.A.P is an acronym for “Movie Album Poetry” book. I had already completed the movie, the album, and the poetry book and I was explaining it to someone and then I realized that it was an acronym for M.A.P. It all made sense because this whole process of me creating all of these projects has sort of served as a map for me, to help me find myself, to help me heal and navigate through my suffering and pain, and even love and joy. It’s just helped me make sense of all these things and put me on the path of my purpose. It helped me really figure out what path I’m supposed to be on, and that’s why it’s a map. I feel like it could help other people going through similar things to stay the course and lead them to the light at the end of their tunnel.
I know you’ve been in the industry since you were young. What do you know now that you wish you had known then?
I know now that I don’t have to compromise anything for anyone. If I have a vision, I can take the time to see it through. I know that I’m around great people. I have a great team that is family and that they are all here to support me. They all help me see the vision through and I think it’s important to keep those people around you. A lot of people think that once they start working more and more, that they have to switch it up and work with people that they feel are on a different level as far as what they can do for you. But, I feel like what’s most important is, you could do everything you need to do for yourself. You just have to be around people that actually believe in you like you believe in you. I think, no one believes in you more than yourself. But, after yourself, the people that believe in you the most are the people that are your true friends and true family.
When my first album was sold out, I felt like a little rushed, but it wasn’t coming from myself. There were people that were putting the pressure on it, but at the end of the day, I allowed them to make me feel that way. That was really my first time putting together an album myself and I did allow other things to sort of control like how I was moving in the situation. But, this time around, I am super focused and I know exactly what I want and how I want it. I think that that is the most important difference”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Williams
I do believe that Jhené Aiko is a huge name of the future. It is interesting seeing these first few albums come out and hearing how she progresses and builds. I was caught by an interview from Revolt. It is amazing to think that, then, she was looking ahead to a decade of being in the industry (Aiki is thirty-two):
“Beyond her beauty, the recording artist exists in many people’s minds as an ephemeral voice as soft as an angel’s whisper with lyrics on love and despair. Her process of making such soulful music is as natural and organic as her beauty. “Most of my songs are freestyles. They start off with me either having something in my head and I’ll sit down with my keyboard player or [producers] Fisticuffs... I’ll tell [them], ‘I have these melodies, just give me a metronome’ and we’ll build music around what I did.”
That’s how her latest song, the scorned lover ode “Triggered (Freestyle),” was created. Her and her longtime producers Fisticuffs started the emotive, piano track with a few instruments before Aiko took the beat to her home studio to record it herself. “[I] just kept singing until [I] said everything I needed to say,” she explained.
“When I’m going through something, it actually flows out easier for me. Doing ‘Triggered’ and several other songs... [gives me] that same feeling that I have to release [it],” Aiko revealed. “It just flows out and I try not to overthink it until I want to [put] ad-libs in or background [vocals]. My new album I’m working on now is like that. Every song that you hear is me [freestyling].”
She says her new LP will be coming “sooner than later” with an update on its status coming from Aiko herself in the near future.
The year 2020 will roughly mark the first decade of Aiko’s solo career since entering the scene with her mixtape Sailing Soul(s). “I’m the same since Sailing Soul(s). I’m just a little more evolved version of myself,” the star explains. “Ever since the first grade, I’ve always known who I was. Now, I’m becoming more of who I am.”
The girl, who had to face decisions like choosing which of her ethnicities she should identify with in order to get casted, has grown into a world where Rihanna’s cosmetic line is one of the biggest in the world. In addition, one of the biggest songs on Beyoncé’s The Lion King soundtrack celebrates "Brown Skin Girls," and different shades of beauty are finally being celebrated in mainstream media. Aiko admits “there’s still more work to be done [with] showing diverse faces and bodies.” But, she is hopeful for the progress. “Now, more than ever, we’re celebrating being unique individuals... and embracing their (women of color) unique features,” she closed”.
I am going to finish off with some reviews of her new album, Chilombo. It is an album that is among the most underrated of last year. I would urge people to check it out and explore its incredible songs. I do, as I keep saying, feel that the best is still to come from Jhené Aiko.
In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Aiko discussed how she has changed as an artist - in addition to an interesting technique she deployed through Chilombo:
“Grammy nominations morning was a bittersweet one for Jhené Aiko. An hour after learning she was up for some of the biggest awards of her career — including Album of the Year for her third record, the curative Chilombo — Aiko found out that her uncle had passed away.
“We were in our own little world,” she says of her and partner Big Sean; at the time the two were on vacation but absorbed the awards news separately. “I was talking with my family about my uncle as well as answering people’s Grammy stuff. To be honest, it was a weird, out-of-body kind of moment, which is usually how I live my life.”
The difference in making Chilombo, though, was in finally recognizing her own power as an artist, thanks to the feedback she received from fans. “Different people come up to me and they let me know what my music means to them, and what it helps them with,” she says. “And so with Chilombo, I just really took that into consideration.”
One of the methods Aiko decided to incorporate into each song was the use of sound bowls. “Because I have been studying sound healing, I did want this album to have an actual, proven healing technique in every track. Not only could people listen to it and relate, it could also balance out different parts of their body, [make them] feel better, and have it actually be an experience to listen to the songs.”
The success of Chilombo — along with its Grammy nominations, the record bowed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 — and the reality of America still being in quarantine have only further pushed Aiko to continue writing about anything and everything. For one, she has her sights on a new album from Twenty88, her ongoing collaboration with Big Sean — even if it’s more of an idea right now than an actual project. “In [a] time that most people perceive as dark or chaotic, that’s where I find my inspiration. That’s when I’m my most creative,” she says. “So I’m not saying that I’m hoping for another crazy year, but whatever happens, there’s always something to be inspired by”.
I want to source from one more interview, as I think we learn some new about Aiko with every interview. In this Essence interview, Aiko explains why she makes music for healing purposes:
“Incense is burning and I’ve just listened to Chilombo in its entirety, which is how Aiko prefers fans to experience her new project that’s equal parts healing and bops. Every song was originally freestyled and had an undercurrent of crystal bowls meant to stimulate different chakras, or energy points, in the body. The R&B singer got into alternative medicine, meditation and sound healing after having too many side effects from prescriptions. So what is Aiko healing from?
“I make music for healing purposes, for myself,” she told ESSENCE after the listening session. “It’s like journaling or when people paint. It’s sort of an escape. It’s turning pain or frustration into something; into art. Sharing it is also therapeutic because when people express to you that they are relating to it, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone in what I’m going through.'”
If 2017’s Trip was Aiko’s escape from her grief through psychedelic drugs, Chilombo is her reclaiming of power through vibrational healing. And before you think it’s too hippy-dippy, the single “P*$$Y Fairy (OTW)” is a clear indication that in everything Aiko does, including the albums that made us fall in love with her, her 2013 debut Sail Out and her 2014 follow-up Souled Out, there’s balance. Let’s be real: she did have all of you, and your cousins, singing about eatin’ booties and groceries. So there’s that. There’s also collabs with John Legend, H.E.R., Miguel, Nas and, of course, Big Sean”.
To finish up, I will bring in a couple of positive reviews for Chilombo. When they say down and listened to the album, this is what Stereogum had to say:
“In fact, one of Chilombo’s many highlights is “None Of Your Concern,” which the couple recorded and released last year while broken up. It’s a bracingly honest and sometimes explicit postmortem on their romance, and it’s one of many unflinching moments on the album. Recording in Hawaii in the wake of her breakup from Sean, Aiko incorporated the sound of crystal alchemy singing bowls tuned to specific chakra frequencies as a mode of healing. If that sounds serene, the lyrics are strikingly raw. “You muhfuckin’ right, I’m bitter/ You muhfuckin’ right, I’m triggered,” Aiko sings over zoned-out keyboard chords and trap drums on early single “Triggered,” one of many elegant reunions with longtime producers Fisticuffs and Lejkeys. On the ghostly “Speak,” she taunts, “I’m moving on I’m putting on my favorite dress, the one you hated/ Said I looked naked in.” Alongside H.E.R. on “B.S.,” she continues the offensive: “It seem like I give so much and don’t get nothin’ back/ I really thought it was love but you’re so fuckin’ wack.”
The original Chilombo tracklist maintains this vibe for an hour. Even brief stylistic detours like the languid funk track “Tryna Smoke” and the John Legend duet “Lightning & Thunder” — a retro soul update similar to Rihanna’s “Love On The Brain” — sound like natural outgrowths of the album’s world. “I know life’s a bitch, but she could at least give me head sometimes,” she memorably quips on the former, and seemingly every track offers up some similarly memorable lyric, often broadcasted in the song titles. On the sparse “Define Me” she proclaims, “You cannot define me.” On the acoustic “Born Tired” she sums up her exhaustion: “Baby, I was born tired.” Few images this year are more evocative than Aiko as the “Pussy Fairy on the way.” By the time Ty Dolla $ign shows up for the thumping and surprisingly upbeat but still fundamentally misty closer “Party For Me,” Aiko has completed one of the most accomplished R&B albums in recent memory”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Taylor
There have been some mixed reviews for the album. I think that Chilombo is underrated. It is an album that grows the more you listen to it. In their review, EUPHORIA. made the following remarks:
“Aiko flexes her self love and dismissal of ex-lovers on Trip with “Never Call Me” and “Nobody” and on Chilombo with “None of Your Concern” and “BS.” Both albums are easy listening even at their length and truly take you through Aiko’s analysis and reflection over time.
The thing that Chilombo gains from staying so similar to Trip is the unforced delivery of how Aiko processes life through lyrics and melody. However, Trip mixed in an internalized and sometimes dark tone, seemingly due to drug experiences that influenced the album. These drug revelations – that seemed to question existence – appear to also represent something that felt like youthful confusion. Differently, on Chilombo Aiko seems to tackle this confusion with more of a yoga-like and meditative approach. This shows the progression of her thinking while still keeping the same essence of the album prior.
On a song like “Born Tired” Aiko dissects a release of her anger and twisted thoughts for the sake of a grateful mindset. One where she appreciates all she has figured out rather than what is still causing conflict. She sings:
“It’s been a long night / Long life, long time fighting Let out a long sigh / Alright, why am I trying? / ‘Cause look at how far you have come / And look at all that you have going / Look at who I have become.”
To end the album Aiko then transitions into a mode of forgiveness with a song like “10k hours.” The forgiveness blossoms into acceptance of the reality of moving on from someone while remembering the love and wishing them well. On “Pray For You” she sings:
“I pray you find your confidence / Pray you find a confidant, pray you get everything that you want / Pray you get everything that I could not give to you /I know that it may seem weird to you”.
I will end with a playlist consisting of the best Jhené Aiko tracks so far. I think she is going to be an artist who will bring out incredible music for years and she will inspire other artists. If you have not heard Jhené Aiko and her music, then get involved and discover…
A superb talent.