It’s the complete opposite to selling it. ‘Sailing’ and ‘selling’ sound similar, and for me sailing your soul is just going with the wind, and knowing yourself enough to be free. Is the title Souled Out a comment on artists that have sold out? It’s not that uncommon a story, you know? I thought it would be good to take a song like that and talk about something that really happens. Date rape is something people don’t really talk about – unprotected sex, then you’re late, and you have a boyfriend and you have to tell him that you went to this party and you don’t know what happened, and now you might get pregnant. The line ‘something was slipped in my drink’ had to do with one of my close friends. I took some personal stories and mashed them all up into this one night. You also do a dark cover of Drake’s ‘Marvin’s Room’ called ‘Do Better Blues Part 2’. For the most part we get so distracted from real life, and we’re just kind of in la-la land, and when something does happen it’s such a shock. We need music that speaks about what’s going on, for sure. It’s not my song, but I feel people should still hear it, and that it should still be performed. There’s no other song that makes me feel like that. (laughs) Tupac?s voice and the messages of his songs were so powerful. I started crying, and I was just like, ‘This is the greatest song of all time!’ Of course, my hormones were probably going crazy too. I remember listening to it when I was pregnant with my daughter. In your live sets you cover Tupac’s ‘Keep Ya Head Up’. (laughs) I like my vocals to have a lot of reverb to make you feel like you’re in outer space. When I’m by myself it feels like I’m with a lot of people because of all the things that go on inside my head. I wrote it over a month, and I just kept adding lines, usually in the early hours, either when I was aimlessly driving or in the studio and all the lights were off. ‘3:16 AM’ is just me summed up into three minutes and 16 seconds. I feel strong, but I do have moments when I’m really weak, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do, and I feel like I’m going crazy and I’m close to the edge. But what if I don’t?’ Is it important to let your vulnerability come though in your music? In ‘3:16 am’ you sing, ‘I do not fear the fear of falling, I wanna fly.
#Jhene aiko souled out album list full
Everything came full circle and I’m working with some of the same people now, but on my terms. I got to tour around the United States with B2K, I got to meet a lot of great producers and great people, which laid a strong foundation. I had to experience life and go through some stuff before I could figure out who I was as an artist. I didn’t even know what type of music I wanted to do, or the type of person that I was. But she had some control when she first came out – I didn’t. I met Solange in those early days! It’s ironic: we both started out doing music we weren’t as into, and we’re both young mothers. Do you feel a similarity with her, as an artist that also left a major label to pursue an independent route? You supported Solange in West Hollywood recently. There are a few more people, but right now I’m gonna keep ’em a surprise. I’ve talked with Drake and we’re meant to be in the studio this month, but my whole thing is just have it be organic.
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I’m going to do some more stuff with Miguel. Kendrick Lamar is on a few tracks, and I have Ab-Soul and the entire TDE rap crew. was an introduction to what I can do melodically, but with Souled Out I’m looking at it like this is my one shot. How’s the album going? Are you still working with Fisticuffs? By the way, it’s “juh-nay ahh-ee-ko”, though the pronunciation guide on her Twitter account probably won’t be necessary for too much longer. After Aiko decided to do things her way and put out her mixtape herself, Def Jam signed her and released the soul-searching and quietly epic “3:16 AM”, the first single from the 24-year-old’s debut album Souled Out, due this spring. A few years later she gave birth to her daughter, Namiko. She’s a musician’s musician with none of the aloofness.Īiko’s talent was spotted at an early age she signed to Epic Records at the age of 12, supported torso revealing boyband B2K on tour and released the passable pop single “NO L.O.V.E”, before leaving the label at 16 to finish school. In the thrillingly diverse independent release, which was mostly produced by duo Fisticuffs, her honeyed voice cruises across the stuttering perspective shifts of “Stranger” (“I meet them every day, they seem to be the same,” she intones resignedly) and the self-reflexive sex-jam “Hoe”, which features Miguel and Gucci Mane. DRAKE, KENDRICK, AB-SOUL, MIGUEL, ENTIRE TDE!Ī few well-chosen cameos is usually a surefire way for a new artist to lay groundwork, but it’s the other way round for R&B singer Jhené Aiko, who had Drake, Kanye and Kendrick step into her world for spots on her 2011 mixtape.