DX: You also have a record in which your daughter contributed to. How cool of a moment was that for the two of you?
Jhene Aiko: It was amazing. She’s always in the car with me. A lot of times, I’ll have beats, and I’ll just write songs to beats, think to them and see what that beat makes me think. A lot of times, I’ll sing melodies to them while driving around, so that by the time I get to the studio, I’ll have the song and I’ll go in and sing it. I wrote about that song, riding around and singing it to her and she was singing along to it. I knew when I heard the beat—which was produced by No I.D.—I knew I wanted to make it into a special song. She was with me in the studio, and I wanted to write the song to her and my brother who passed away. I thought it would be so dope if she sang it with me and she had her own little part. She loves singing, so she was really excited. She didn’t need any Auto-tune or anything. She was on key and on beat; she has impeccable rhythm. It was fun and she’s like, “I want to do what you do when I grow up.”
DX: You mentioned in previous interviews that Souled Out would be your deepest album to date. How would you describe the state of mind that you’re in with the album?
Jhene Aiko: Souled Out is where I’m at now. It was pretty much the songs I did after Sailing Soul(s). I was in the vibe after working with a lot of rappers. When I started working with No I.D., his tracks are amazing, and it made me feel like I want to be introspective and talk about real life things that I’ve really been into besides heartbreak from a guy. Writing to his tracks are very therapeutic for me, so I feel like I’ve really dug deep into my whole philosophy on life. I had been through a lot since the mixtape. I was in a better place and a more mature way of looking at life. It wasn’t all about smoking, getting high or having sex.
I feel Souled Out is where I am now and my journey to becoming the person I wanted to be. No I.D. is an amazing producer, so the beats are amazing. A few other producers are on there too. It’s definitely going to be a complete album. When I say it’s my journey, it’s really going to tell a story, and I have some exciting plans for my album with the creatives. I really want it to be an album that anyone can listen to—your mom, little sister, as a man. I want them to take it in and get a good understanding on a woman’s mind. It’s hard to explain for me, because it’s just me. It’s completely a piece of my soul in every track. I’m excited for people to hear and understand what I can do as an artist.
DX: Souled Out is the most personal project you’ve done, so can you sense your own personal maturation from 2011’s Sailing Soul(s), to the EP, to now?
Jhene Aiko: Definitely. I feel with Sailing Soul(s) and Sail Out—even though I’ve felt like I dropped a few gems in each song—I felt like I grew. With a feel-good song, I always try to say something that I feel people can think about or go back and be like, “Oh, that’s what she meant by that.” Between the time, it was a natural growth. It’s been three years since 2011. I’ve definitely grown as a person, and I feel more comfortable sharing my stories, because the best feeling to me is the people that listen to my music understand I’m a normal person. When they come up to me, it’s very personal, and they always have a story about a song that has helped them. It means so much to me, because it was really something I went through too. It’s not like someone wrote the song for me and I sang it, and people come up to me saying, “Thank you for doing the song, and I have no connection to it,” because it happens a lot [to other artists].
With me, because I really wrote the song and really went through it, when someone comes and says, “My dad died of cancer, and the song for your brother really helped me get through it,” it makes me feel amazing. I feel with Souled Out, it’s a lot more of that, because it’s me being extremely open and me coming to terms with who I am, the things I’ve been through, and the direction I want to go with my life. For people who don’t understand the type of artist I am, it’ll show them that it’s deeper than Rap [laughs].
Full interview:
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/interv...e-on-her-music
I feel like this album is about to be a classic!!!!!