#Jidenna the chief album listen series#

The revolutionary pulse of this stuff feels very of the moment, even if stylistically itвЂ™s all over the place. The Chief wins because itвЂ™s simply fun and smart underneath all the twists and turns (barring, perhaps, вЂњA BullвЂ™s TaleвЂќ and вЂњ2 Points,вЂќ which share the righteous fire of вЂњLong Live the ChiefвЂќ and вЂњChief DonвЂ™t RunвЂќ but not the pointed rap smarts). There is a hint of forced, strategic world-consciousness present when an Ed Sheeran tries his hand at dancehall or a Drake comes sniffing around Afrobeat thatвЂ™s thankfully absent here. feels like a function of an artistвЂ™s genuinely widespread interests rather than the intentional market saturation that characterizes a lot of pop gestures of a similar nature. The mission throughout The Chief seems to be to bridge the gap between the musical movements of the African diaspora its carefree trip through rap, R&B, rock, reggae, dancehall, etc. вЂњSome Kind of WayвЂќ skips effortlessly between trap, sunny EDM, and Nigerian highlife music, proving JidennaвЂ™s disparate cultural cues arenвЂ™t as far removed from one another as they might look. вЂњHelicoptersвЂќ imagines Bob Marley living to encounter some plush, dramatic 2010s pop production before crashing into the two-minute вЂњBewareвЂќ coda, a seasick trap-jam so hard it deserves a proper single version. Jidenna plays the capable rapper, the classic soul singer, and the Auto-Tuned hook-man, shifting styles and genres at a momentвЂ™s notice.

The eagerness to show listeners every single thing Jidenna is capable of results in some great songwriting, but in execution, itвЂ™s a breakneck race through half a dozen genres, and sometimes two or three within the same song. The wait has rendered it both accomplished and a little impatient. TodayвЂ™s new The Chief is the culmination of a two-year singles campaign and the decade of study and practice that preceded it.

#Jidenna the chief album listen series#

Instead of blanketing the single and mixtape circuit with new material, advancing his profile based on whatever stuck, he carefully set about expanding on the world вЂњClassic ManвЂќ unfurled with a series of follow-up singles alongside Atlanta singer-actress Janelle MonГЎeвЂ™s Wondaland Arts Society collective that matched its careful balance of smooth sonics and coarse thought, if not necessarily its commercial windfall. What do you do when your debut solo single cruises past a million units sold? JidennaвЂ™s patience in devising an answer speaks to a certain poise. This slow ascent is proof the man didnвЂ™t arrive classic instead he whittled his aesthetic down over time and breached the public consciousness with it sharpened to a point. Pre-fame performance footage exists if you know where to Google. Jidenna is a Nigerian-born, Ivy LeagueвЂ“educated schoolteacher by trade who, as he once told Spin, got into rap by force of intellectual curiosity. If you listened close, there was a verse about what to do about police brutality. TylerвЂ™s rager explained Odd FutureвЂ™s teenage riot in a single blast of disdain for self and others, but JidennaвЂ™s single pulled off a more nuanced feat, sneaking revolutionary rhetoric into the margins of what seemed to be an innocuous pop jam while presenting a vision of black pride and self-sufficiency in its visual component.

YouвЂ™d have to go back as far as Tyler, the CreatorвЂ™s вЂњYonkersвЂќ to find a song that maps out the artistвЂ™s aesthetic so cleanly for a casual listening audience on a first pass. вЂњClassic ManвЂќ was something else: lead single as political Trojan horse, music video as ideological calling card.