Jhené Aiko's debut studio album "Souled Out" is slated for release for May 2014. The neo-R&B/rapper is redefining rap and R&B music much like how Drake did, creating a sultry blend of the two genres to create her own.
Last year Jhené Aiko's "Sail Out" EP debuted at No. 1 on the R&B charts. Her 2011 mixtape, Sailing Souls, which Jhené produced with Fisticuffs and featured an impressive group of rappers, including Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar, Gucci Mane, Miguel, and Drake-impressed legendary producer turned Def Jam executive No I.D. He eventually made Aiko his first artist signed to his Artium imprint. "I could see a new R&B forming, following in the footsteps of Frank Ocean, Miguel, Weeknd, and Drake. She had these witty rap complexities to her lyrics, with these very digestible melodies. I knew it would connect and I knew that females hadn't heard a female doing it," says No I.D.
Aiko is also winning the approval of the likes of Lebron James, and has already appeared on Drizzy's Nothing Was The Same, on the track "From Time" as well as on J. Cole's album Born Sinner.
In an interview with Complex, for which she is on the cover for the April/May edition, the up and coming songstress talks about her very successful mixtapes. "The Sailing Souls mixtape, that was the height of me going through all of this stuff," Jhené comments. "I'd just had my daughter and I was working at a vegan café and I wanted to do this mixtape, so I was recording after work. I just needed to release all my frustration and my heartache and pain. It's [easier] for me to write about that type of stuff than [happiness]."
According to Complex, Aiko first met Drake shortly before he released his 2009 mixtape So Far Gone. "I had just found out I was pregnant. No one else knew and I was still just recording. I was feeling my way around, seeing who I wanted to work with and what I wanted to write about. I went into a session to meet him through a mutual friend. That's how that relationship formed. I knew him from Degrassi because some of my younger family members watched it. When I saw him I was like, 'Oh. He's that guy from that show.' He was nowhere near who he is today, even though the underground music people were like, 'He's next!'"
As for her impression of Drake, it's clear that Jhene looks up the rapper and asks him for advice on her own career. "I look up to Drake," Jhené says. "Everything in his whole career is commendable. He can act, he can rap, he can sing. I can relate to him. He's mixed; I'm mixed. Everything he does, I take note because I feel like he's doing a really good job of being, like, well-rounded. And not only that, he's really talented. I'm always asking him for advice with stuff and trying to figure out how he deals with being such a big celebrity."
