Maiysha Kai sits down with the talented singer/rapper/songwriter/producer Jidenna as he sheds light on the importance of challenging stereotypes surrounding Black men and Black male vulnerability, the need for musicians like himself to unionize, his support for the writers and actors’ strike and his unwavering love for hip-hop—Peek behind the curtain of his songwriting process, where authenticity and openness shine. Join us for this great conversation that unites, inspires vulnerability, and reveals the true essence of storytelling through music.
Full transcript below.
Panama Jackson [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified.
Maiysha Kai [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to another episode of Writing Black. I’m your host, Maiysha Kai, theGrio’s lifestyle editor. And if you are new to the podcast, welcome. And if you’re returning, welcome back. You can catch up with all episodes of Writing Black and all the other suite of podcasts in theGrio’s library on theGrio Black Podcast Network, or wherever you get your podcasts. But today we are talking about writing with somebody who I’m really excited to talk to. You know, a lot of you know, in my former free lifestyle editor, I was a singer/songwriter. I occasionally still dabble. And we’ve got a musician with us today who I’ve been a fan of since he first dropped. We have with us, and he’s got a new album out, so I’m really excited to talk about it. We have with us, Jidenna. How are you? Thank you for joining us on Writing Black.
Jidenna [00:00:55] Yes, thank you, Maiysha. It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s always a pleasure to be working with theGrio and especially.
Maiysha Kai [00:01:04] We’re thrilled to have you.
Jidenna [00:01:05] Yeah, especially something called Writing Black. I started as a poet, so like a little child writing and scribbling little poem lines on my composition notebook. So I’m thrilled to talk about writing.
Maiysha Kai [00:01:22] Yeah. And you know that I love that you’re already in that zone. You know, I know you’ve been heavily promoting the album and it deserves it. It’s a great work. It came out in May and it’s fantastic. Me You and God, which the title alone says a lot. And we’re going to talk we’re going to dig into a lot of that meaning. But I do want to talk about evolution. I want to talk about writing. I want to talk about so many things with you because I’ve been a fan for such a long time, and it’s always cool to see the arc of an artist’s career. When you are blessed enough to be able to make a living at your creative craft, everybody doesn’t get to do that, you know, there’s some really magical things that can happen. And with you especially, I think it’s been so fun to kind of watch this, you know, you kind of evolving before our eyes in real time. So, you know, we were introduced to you as a classic man.
Jidenna – Classic Man [00:02:23] I’m a classic man. You can be mean, when you look this clean. I’m a classic man. Callin’ on me like a young OG.
Maiysha Kai [00:02:34] You know, with Me You and God, there’s something different happening here. It feels like there’s definitely. It’s still manly. It’s just a different approach to masculinity. I’ve heard I’ve heard you use the phrase the divine masculine when talking about this album. Tell me, tell me how this album came to be.
Jidenna [00:02:55] Yeah. You know, I love the evolution of artists as well. A lot of my favorite artists reinvented themselves. I go every couple of years, even to this day. Like one of my favorite artists, Tyler the Creator, if you watched his career from like early 2010s all the way to now. He was able to reinvent himself multiple times. So for me, it’s natural for me, I try on different hairstyles every couple of years, different clothing styles. I’ve done it since I was in high school, probably college. And so this is just the, probably the more stripped down version of me. Somebody likened Me You and God to like, they were talking about older artists from previous generations, they’re like, yeah, this is like you’re Justin Timberlake Man in the Woods album. This is like you’re you’re but it’s also you’re Marvin Gaye.
Maiysha Kai [00:03:55] I was I was going to say I got more of a Marvin Gaye vibe.
Jidenna [00:03:58] Yeah I don’t think is the Justin Timberlake wasn’t like sonic, it was more like where he was at at the time. He wasn’t a Suit & Tie anymore. So obvious, I’m not right now. So Me You and God was my departure album. It could be Andre 3000’s The Love Below. Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! You see a lot of artists, especially people that started as rappers or like rapping singers, have an album that just felt different. And then all of them, and this is for sure, my offering in that equation. The Me You and God started during the pandemic. And, you know, for anybody who had a pandemic bae, like it did feel like we, you and the landscape that you were in. Whether that was New York or Atlanta or Paris or in my case, Los Angeles, which had a lot of physical, natural landscape, unlike a lot of other major U.S. cities. The Me You and God felt like a title that summed it up, but it also felt like a title that summed up my where I was individually kind of like me, myself and are, if you will. So it was just a perfect phrase to encapsulate where I was at.
Maiysha Kai [00:05:15] You know, and I feel like you’re taking us with you on this. And I love that you talked about Los Angeles really informing where you were. And, you know, we see this with all kinds of writers. We see this with poets, we see this with novelists, you know, this sense of place and place for you, at least as as far as I’ve been following your career, has always featured pretty heavily in your work, whether, you know, we’re talking about, you know, this, throwing it back to your heritage in your first album. 85 to Africa, you know, you’re really taking us from Atlanta across the Atlantic. You know this sonically, this album, you know and I’m delving out of the writing and into that sonic space that I also inhabit as a singer songwriter. You know, I, I really I think a lot of us really felt that very L.A. vibe. You know, it’s there in the instrumentation and it’s there in just the vibes, right? You kind of workshopped this, which was really cool.
Jidenna [00:06:27] Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:06:29] And I remember one comment stands me that it feels like a score. You know, it’s very cinematic. That’s the word I’m looking for. It’s very cinematic.
Jidenna [00:06:36] Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:06:37] Talk to me about how place features into your writing.
Jidenna [00:06:42] First, I want to highlight the reason why it feels like this cause because of the maestro. Roman GianArthur, who was the lead producer on this album and produced the majority of the project. There were some amazing other producers, Christian Gregory, KZ, Dom the Bassman, and of course, my co-executive producer for all my projects, Nana Kwabena. But that’s like the cinematic score. And you’re getting that from Roman predominately. So shout out to one of my best friends. But the way place influences sound and writing, for me, I completely jump into a new territory every project. Like the first project, I was coming from New York. But, you know, I just moved to L.A. I’m experiments and with trap, I moved from my college area, the Bay to New York. So, like, the first album has a combination of lots the things. And I think that it was too early for that because streaming wasn’t as high at that time, you know? So for artists like me to, you know, you look at the reviews, “eccentric”, “eclectic”, you know, that it’s like slight disrespect.
Maiysha Kai [00:08:02] I was one of those artists, too, where they didn’t know what to do with you. They were like.
Jidenna [00:08:07] Yeah. And their like, I found it like, slightly dissmissive.
Maiysha Kai [00:08:11] Yeah.
Jidenna [00:08:13] I’m reading this. I’m like, ya’ll see it in due time, man. Like, Ya’ll see that I’m touching on Afrobeats. Ya’ll see that I’m blending trap with other genres and not keeping it orthodox like, you know, the original Atlanta sound. And sure enough, I literally the year after, everybody started to do more thing. And that was album one. Second album, as you touched on, that was my move from Atlanta to Africa and I was staying in South Africa, but also traveling to different parts, of course, in Nigeria. This project because I was in L.A. it was like my favorite time in L.A. Like in all time, it is my favorite time during the pandemic because nobody was out. There’s no traffic. Hollywood is pretty much dead. You know, are quiet and dormant. So you could drive up my favorite highway in the US called the PCH. So those are, you know, Route one and a ride along the west side of the entire coast. So I drove up and down there religiously. That’s and I would I would go to beaches by myself. Once I found this wonderful lady, there was the muse for the project and my lovely partner to this day, I would drive with her. So, you know, after that I would make a song. And that was pretty much my my daily regimen. And I lived in a downtown LA that was in the city. So I had the landscape and then I had the city outside of L.A. homies who are playing like L.A. Funk, P-Funk, g-funk that and Midwestern funk like Ohio players. I was just all the way in growth in that and I had no pressure to make a hit song. So that’s why Me You and God, the way it is, it’s not trying to be anything. It’s not. It’s probably one of the purest, unadulterated versions of me. And like I have glimpses of it in other projects from songs you hear a band be like, We’re not really a soul, but this one is a full body of work. It did not have a mission. It did not have an objective other than to be itself. And I think that that’s what, what, why I love that. I was so proud of it.
Maiysha Kai [00:10:36] I love that answer. We’re going to take a quick break, but we’re going to be right back with Jidenna and more Writing Black.
Star Stories Podcast [00:10:47] I’m Touré. Join us for crazy true stories about stars who I really hung out with like Snoop, Jay-Z, Prince, Kanye, and the time I got kidnaped by Suge Knight. Don’t miss my animated series Star Stories with Touré from theGrio Black Podcast Network.
Maiysha Kai [00:11:13] All right. We are back with our guest today, Jidenna, who is giving us so much. I mean, listen, this is really a rich conversation for me as a writer. Even though I don’t currently write songs, I’m still a writer every day. And I love everything that you were just saying about evolution and purity and allowing a space and even just, you know, where life takes us to inform what you’re putting out. I mean, we have a lot of writers who listen to this podcast who are interested in craft and how people get from one place to another. And I think, you know, musicians. As we know, the industry itself is incredibly challenging and we’re in a really interesting crossroads that we’re seeing with, you know, we’re having this conversation during the writers strike. We’re having this conversation during the SAG strike. Musicians haven’t quite gotten there yet, but there’s a lot of rallying cries for that as well. And so it’s really interesting to me to be speaking to creatives at this time. What do you think as a writer, you know, as somebody who’s worked in many mediums at this point, how do you feel? You know, I mean, because your own sound has evolved so much, you know, starting much more rap based to now being probably something that I think most people would say is much more. I can’t say it’s more musical. It’s more vocal in terms of like singing. How do you feel this merging of these landscapes? Like what’s next, you know, for us? You know, obviously, we’re seeing this encroachment upon craft. What what is your response to that?
Jidenna [00:12:58] You know. I was speaking with a friend who works in documentary film. One of my best friends. And she was talking about the importance of this time for the the writers strike and the SAG strike. And, you know, ultimately, the crews. The people that put on these enormous productions. And. Well, to be a hundred precent, one obviously I’m in support, but two, I was jealous. My first emotion was jealousy, because I told her I was like, Look, I’m all the way for it. But I think I’m feeling what what other like marginalized groups feel when they see Black people fighting so hard. They’ll be jealous and we don’t never talk about it. The reason I was jealous because musicians, artists, we don’t even a union. We don’t even have step one. So like to organize us is going to take, it’s going to take a huge, momentous declaration and honestly, it’s going to take us unionizing in some way, shape or form. And there’s been other artists like Chance the Rapper have spoken about this like years ago when he first came up. We need to have some sort of union because we are just out of here. Whether you’re broke or you have money. Like I know people who are multi, you know, make multi million dollars a year and they don’t have the right health care coverage because they’re trying to afford that lifestyle.
Jidenna [00:14:31] So what’s next, I think on the musician and artist front is some sort of centralization. We live in a decentralized industry. So that’s number one. And two, my hope is that I seen in in the TV and film arena that we see maybe a new streaming service that are streaming services that exist that highlight some of the independent work that we see people create, but we don’t actually get to see. I know that people are calling for the average person to unsubscribe to these big streaming platforms. I don’t I don’t believe that most people will. But I understand the call. So at the end of the day, we just have to build structures that are fair and equitable. And I love and support what’s going on. But yeah, what’s next? I’ll think about the musicians. Damn, we need to get in this race.
Maiysha Kai [00:15:33] Yeah. You know, I’ve thought about it a lot, too, for obvious reasons. And, you know, on a lighter note, we’re also having this conversation during the 50th celebration of hip-hop. I mean, we’re sitting here, you know, 50th anniversary. You know, those of us who are of a certain age and maybe remember some of, a lot of that genesis, a lot of when hip-hop really kind of like hit the mainstream, as it were. And you are now part of that legacy. And this is another art form that has evolved so tremendously. Do you see yourself the way that I’m seeing it in terms of like having a part in that legacy? And what what would you say that is?
Jidenna [00:16:18] I it that’s such an interesting question because I grew up like hip-hop was the thing. When I grew up, I was benefiting from previous generations work. You know, I grew up at a time when hip-hop was already like the most popular music worldwide, so I didn’t even know. I didn’t know I was privileged to have that. It took me years to understand that yo people worked to make kind of like a folklore culture, a mainstream culture that could provide income for the artists that were involved. I grew up with, like going to Best Buy. Like when I hear some of the OGs talk about like vinyl and digging into crates and like, romanticize of rapping, it’s amazing, cause, like, I don’t have any of that experience. I’m a millennial. You know what we did? We went to Best Buy with our mom, like, Yo, I want a eMachine or like a Dell Computer, please. I got to make beats. And then we downloaded Fruity Loops and went on a LimeWire like and then cut up samples like that. We were doing the same thing, like the eMachines were dusty, you know what I’m saying? That was but that was our tech and that’s how we flipped it. And we would rap in the house more than the park. And we were a record more than we would freestyle. And now you see like, you know, people were literally do that. Like Gen Z, that that’s what they do.
Jidenna [00:17:51] So it’s been interesting to watch. And now we’re at a time where there’s others sound like house music is poppin again, Afrobeats has taken the world by storm. So hip-hop has contenders and these other genres blend with hip-hop. So the way where I see myself fitting is I was one of the people that would fuse other genres with hip-hop. I’m not the only person, of course, but I’m one of the people that came at a pivotal time when streaming was just starting. So between, you know, 2015 to like 2020, right at the dawn of the pandemic, that was the evolution of streaming. And I was fuzing these genres that you now see are pretty ubiquitous across Earth. So I’m proud to be one of those. I’m proud to be a rebel. And I think that I got that on the hip-hop. hip-hop was like don’t do what other people are doing, Like Missy Elliott went left when everybody went right, Busta Rhymes well left when everybody went right. And so for me, when I saw everybody with their pants sagging, which I used to do, and shoot, I do that today sometime. But it was out at that time. I’m like, what do I how do I do the opposite? If they go in baggy, I’m gonna go slim. If they sag their pants, I’m going to wear suspenders. If they dress casual, I’ma dress up. And so that was hip-hop to me and all the OGs knew that. And that’s why they rated me early and I appreciate because they saw it and salute it.
Maiysha Kai [00:19:23] I salute it, too. I love this. I’m having so much fun with this conversation. We’re going to continue in just a second. When we come back with more Jidenna and more Writing Black. Stay tuned.
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Maiysha Kai [00:20:35] We are back with more Writing Black and our guest today, who I’m a huge fan of, I’m trying not to fangirl out. Jidenna is here with us, giving us so much rich stuff to talk about when it comes to writing, when it comes to influence, when it comes to hip-hop and culture. And, you know, one of the things you were just talking about is this fuzing of musical styles that, you know, I’m a firm believer in. I love seeing all those elements come together. But it also speaks to a bigger culture that I think you are very much also a part of, which is this culture of collaboration, which we see obviously in music as a medium much more than we might see in other creative mediums. You know, earlier you were shouting out a whole gang of ridiculously talented producers and collaborators. You are part of the Wondaland Collective, which again, just you know, I was watching your video. I don’t even know if it was the official video for Front End.
Jidenna – Front End [00:21:40] I want to tell you from the jump, you a motherfuckin’ vibe. You at the top of my roster, hope I’m at the front of your line. Girl, you know you got me stuck.
Maiysha Kai [00:21:53] And I loved it so much. I loved everything about it. I loved that I couldn’t tell who was doing what when. I love the friendship.
Jidenna [00:22:01] Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:22:02] The obvious kinship, the joy.
Jidenna [00:22:05] Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:22:06] You know, there was so much of it to love there. Tell me about how the collaboration has functioned in your career, you know, because, you know, I think writers, we sometimes think of ourselves as like islands. Like we’re just going to, like, go in the room, we shut ourselves down, you know.
Jidenna [00:22:21] Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:22:21] I’m so cerebral. You know, But, you know, and yes, there’s the occasional, you know, book coach or ghost writer or what have you or, you know, but you very openly shout out your collaborators. Tell me about how collaboration functions for you as a creator.
Jidenna [00:22:39] Man, you know that the Front End video, it wasn’t like an official video, you know, My homie Patrick.
Maiysha Kai [00:22:45] Oh, it should be. It’s so good.
Jidenna [00:22:46] Yeah, well, we, we, I mean, we probably would’ve done it up like if that was the official video. Like we would’ve try to choreograph it, but Patrick’s Struys came over to shoot it. My homie. And he was like. Actually, I don’t know if he was coming to shoot that. He just came to shoot and he was like, How do you guys make songs? And we’re like, All right, just roll and we’ll show you how we make songs. So we had this Idea Mic that we hold. Which you see me holding and then we pass it. We make songs like that. If we co-produce, that’s how it looks. We just get on different keys, guitars, bass, somebody, and then we rotate as engineer, in the engineers seat because we can all engineer. That’s how we make songs. That’s how Janelle makes songs. We’ve been making songs like that for like well over a decade. So it’s very much like, I think funk values. Everybody got different swag. There’s hip-hop recording styles, which is very immediate. Afrobeats very immediate. Funk is very like everybody jumps on an instrument. It’s, you know, based on jazz theory in some ways, like just collective improv. Rock is like more intense.
Jidenna [00:24:06] So we take the funk aesthetic or funk approach and that’s how we collab. And everybody can. I’m not opposed to. If somebody’s got a better bar than I got, then that bar knocks out. I’m not like, Oh, I got to be beholden to my bar. Like, this is my writing. I love, I love collaboration with my homies. I don’t do a lot of collaboration outside of Wondaland. Like here and there you’ll see somebody on my projects, but I’m that’s where I’m like a shy, introverted writer. Like I freeze up in studio sessions with other artists. That’s why I can’t. I’m like, I still feel like a child in that way. And I’m okay with that because I see other artists that I’ve admired. When they share how they are, then they feel like that. So, you know, I’m still rectifying my social anxiety in that space. But I feel very comfortable when I’m at Wondaland.
Maiysha Kai [00:25:07] I really dig that you are being transparent about things like social anxiety. I have that, too. And especially when it comes to, you know, I mean, as as Erykah Badu once famously said, you know, we’re sensitive about our shit.
Jidenna [00:25:22] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:25:23] It’s very difficult to kind of put that out there. Oh, and for our listeners, I’m going to sidebar for a second. If you want to see what I was referring to, check out Jidenna’s Instagram page. It’s a great behind the scenes. That looks like it’s like one shot. It’s just a fantastic little. I mean, it’s just a wonderful vignette. And yeah, I would be totally happy if that was just the video. Front End is the single, but back to what we were just talking about. You know, to me, this discussion and things like, you know, you were just talking about social anxiety. You referred to having a muse on this project and a partner like there is. And you know, that sensitivity that we’re talking about I think is really shining through here in this project. I think, you know, musicians in general, you know, we we tend to use our songs to kind of like exercise whatever we’re going through. But there seems to be a very in every aspect of how you have produced and even promoted this album. Because, again, you know, I was talking earlier about, you know, kind of marveling at like the workshopping process you did with this album. You actively engaged your audience and giving you feedback. And to me, that speaks to something deeper, which is a vulnerability. And I would love to hear your thoughts on vulnerability and how it is functioning for you as you continue to grow as an artist.
Jidenna [00:26:54] Man You know, I’ll say this about vulnerability is definitely a buzzword. I hear that a lot right now and I’m happy about it. It’s actually a lot is Black women encouraging Black men to be vulnerable. I’m hearing that and I’m one of the people that got my ears open to that. So thank you to all the Black women who have pushed us to enter in this new chapter for like Black masculinity. How is vulnerability play a role? Well, I think that. I was always. I was raised by engineers. My father was an engineer, my brother and my sister, one of my sisters. And I looked at negative emotions or like or emotions like sadness or anger as something I had to solve for like, Oh, you feel this way. So how do you get out of this feeling? How do you solve for it as efficiently as possible? That’s how I looked at it, and I think a lot of people do. And to me raises a man you actually do that whether or not you’re aware of it, you know. How do I solve for this?
Jidenna [00:28:09] And and and then I did a tour 2017 with Stromae. That tour culminated in Madison Square Garden with Stromae headlining and Janelle Monae and then myself. And after the tour, I’m chillin in the bar, celebrating with Stromae’s team and his manager at the time takes me over to the bar. We’re all faded and he’s like, He’s like, I love everything you do. The lonely. The guy. My favorite. The only thing is you that you know your problem? I’m like my problem? We did the Madison Square Garden. Like I’m poppin’ right now. What are you talkin’ about? Like, it’s 2017. I’m in my early prime. And he’s like, No, your problem is you’re too perfect. You’re too perfect. He’s like, Look at look at Paul. That’s Stromae’s name, Paul. That Paul he cries when he sings. You, you don’t. He said, You have no vulnerability. And it struck me, man. Actually that was 2016. That winter I did the rider thing I went I told everybody in my artist commune in Atlanta to leave early. To go see their family. Because I was spending December through January alone in this big rapper mansion that I had. And I, I kick everybody out and I sat and I prayed and I thought and I felt and I try to think of a time where I felt really vulnerable. And out of that session came Bambi. And Bambi was my first, like, attempt to be vulnerable and one of the greatest songs I ever wrote.
Jidenna [00:29:56] To run the jungle, I must be a lion. Or be a cheetah, but neither is fine. Don’t want to heart my dear love of my life. Bambi. Bambi.
Maiysha Kai [00:30:15] It’s a favorite.
Jidenna [00:30:15] Thank you. And so that was my entry point. But it wasn’t the whole project. For this project, I had read so much like Bell Hooks. I had I’ve read so much this dude Thomas Moore, who writes Dark Nights of the Soul. Octavia Butler I’ve read, I don’t know, like six books of Octavia Butler. She’s one of my favorite authors, obviously started with Parable of the Sower. Kindred in high school. But then Parable of the Sower. The trilogy followed that. And one thing that the lead protagonist says in Parable of the Sower when she’s writing her journal called Earthsea, is that everything you touch, touches you. Everything you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change. Man, that struck me so hard. And I think that being okay with change, accepting change is the entry way to vulnerability. If you can accept that and you can embrace where you are, with however you feel, and you can sit in it knowing that it shall pass. But kind of enjoy it if you can, or at least experience it in full when you’re in it. And that’s what I did for this project. I was embracing change. I was embracing the feelings I had of falling in love, which I was afraid to admit. People don’t be wanting to. Before, if somebody was like, “Yo you in love?” “Huh?” “What?” “Me?” “Nah, I being, man.” “She, cool, she cool, we chillin’.” Why are we so afraid? That’s so lame. That’s kind of my story and why I was able to create an album that probably had the sensuality that you heard in the 1970s. It’s because I was going through change and I was able to embrace it.
Maiysha Kai [00:32:11] You know, it’s so interesting. I have I have made people tear up on this podcast and you just made me tear up, and I feel some type of way about it. I guess I’m feeling vulnerable, Jidenna. I’m feeling a little verklempt.
Jidenna [00:32:23] Aye.
Maiysha Kai [00:32:23] You know, as I was researching for this, you know, I research all my guests, and one of the things I loved is you did, again ya’ll visit his Instagram page is mad fun, you did a whole interview series with Black men asking them, have you ever been in love?
Interviewer [00:32:42] Have you ever been in love?
Guest 1 [00:32:44] Have I ever been in love?
Guest 2 [00:32:48] Yes, I have.
Guest 3 [00:32:51] Yes. Kinda just like I could be myself.
Guest 4 [00:32:54] Requires me to be the man that I say I want to meet. And that is one of the most beautiful things.
Guest 5 [00:33:04] I love her because It’s easy for me to do that. It makes me happy and I see her as somebody I still respect outside of being with her.
Maiysha Kai [00:33:13] I don’t even know how to explain it. It was just so a wholesome is a word that came to mind. It was so, it was delicious. Actually. It was delicious. Like these men, you know, I don’t even know if you expected some of those words to come out of some of those face.
Jidenna [00:33:29] Nah.
Maiysha Kai [00:33:30] On the unexpected tip, you know, it’s so funny, I love when people can anticipate my needs. I typically ask my my guests who they read or what what they love. You just gave us some amazing shout outs. I mean, you know, Bell Hooks and Octavia Butler alone are, you know, major influences on my own life, my own writing. But since you anticipate my needs, you know, I do. You know, you referred to yourself, you know, as a nerd. I know, you know, a lot of people might not know you’re like a Stanford grad and, you know, like, done all sorts of like comparative studies on on race and whatnot, which is, you know, I love that. I love I love a multi dimensional artist. But since you have given us some shout outs on who who you love to read, I would love to know. You know, I know it’s a little early because you just released an album, but what’s on the horizon for Jidenna?
Jidenna [00:34:25] Well, well, I just made a recent announcement that is pretty major. It took a lot of deliberation. So for the listeners who have not heard, I decided to forego my own tour to jump on the road with Janelle Monae. And so I am on the road with my sistren, one of my great friends and creative partners. I’m so honored to do that because, you know, it’s a special moment for her. Talk about vulnerability. She is in a very free space, free and fun and funky.
Maiysha Kai [00:35:11] She’s in full bloom right now.
Jidenna [00:35:12] She’s a full bloom. It’s dope, because I’ve known her for years. I’ve known the private side. To see her display the private side, quite literally, like in public, is beautiful to watch. We’ve talked about it for years. And it’s funny because for the rollout of this album I had thought about like, I thought, man what if I just like roll around naked in the nature with my girlfriend and like, film that. That was one of the concepts. We get like a drone shot and zoom in and we didn’t end up doing it. But then I saw Janelle’s roll out, I was like, yep, we on the say wave. Pleasure. Sensuality. Feeling free in wherever we at. So Janelle.
Maiysha Kai [00:36:02] It’s going to be a naked tour.
Jidenna [00:36:03] Yeah. Right? It’ll be so funny. The headliner, me, the opening act, Nana Kwabena is djing. We’re all just butt ass naked. People would be like, Yo, these muthafuckas is crazy at Wondaland. I don’t know what kind of shrooms they on. But yes, I’m really excited about that. After tour I have another project that I’ll be rolling out. You know, I left people for a few years without music, so it’s my obligation to serve the people that helped lift me up. But more importantly, it’s just an obligation to myself to be consistent and to not be a perfectionist. And the second project is definitely it’s a whole different me. You know, it’s actually where I feel like I am now, even though I’m in the middle of rolling out Me You and God. It’s way more Afro, fusion, house, dance music and its trancey. You talked about my major a little bit at Stanford. The full major, the department I was in was a race and ethnicity department, but my major is a major that I created called Ritual Art. It’s studying the art of rituals in different cultures around the world, and that I have utilized that in my marketing. But this next project is going to be steeped in my spiritual side, and that’s the side that I have not put on full display because it’s very private to me. But I’m going to put it out there and yea, it’s probably going to turn a lot heads. And it is it’s going to challenge notions of religion and especially in relationship to what where Black people are or where we want to go. I have some perspectives that I want to share. So that’s what’s next. Outside of that, once the strikes are over, I’m going to really delve into my acting career. It’s something that I wanted to train in for a minute.
Maiysha Kai [00:38:15] Fantastic. You hear that ya’ll? The evolution continues. I, for one, am looking forward to this tour. But I’m also, you know, I’m looking forward to this project, this tour. This conversation was so fun for me.
Jidenna [00:38:29] Yeah.
Maiysha Kai [00:38:29] And so inspiring as well. Thank you so much for joining us.
Jidenna [00:38:34] I appreciate you.
Maiysha Kai [00:38:35] Y’all go out. Check out Me You and God. And really, you know, I love the way these albums, you know, that they play with each other, you know, so I found myself delving back into your entire catalog. I think a lot of your fans, old and new, will do the same. So thank you again for joining theGrio today for Writing Black.
Jidenna [00:38:54] I really appreciate you. Thank you for just having a conversation that you know and just.
Maiysha Kai [00:38:59] My pleasure.
Jidenna [00:39:00] Knowing what you’re talking about. You know, I mean, like so many people, they don’t do that. They don’t take the craft seriously. And I can tell you do. And I can tell you you have real passion and interest in what you do. So thank you for that.
Maiysha Kai [00:39:16] I’m tearing up again. He has this effect on me. All right. Get me out of here before I start sniffling. I mean, I mean, you know, listen, that was an amazing conversation with Jidenna and get into it. Get into Me You and God. It’s a beautiful album. He’s obviously in a beautiful phase. I was super inspired by that conversation. I hope you were, too. But of course, now it’s time for us to get into another favorite thing of mine, which is recommending books. This is the portion we like to call my favorites recommended reads.
Maiysha Kai [00:39:54] You know, we are celebrating the 50th year of hip-hop. And, you know, I’m big on ladies first, you know, so this is The Motherload: 100+ Women Who Made hip-hop. This is by Clover Hope. It’s got a great graphic quality. There’s illustrations here by Rochelle Baker. You know, here on the cover, you can see Lil Kim. You’ve got Nicki Minaj. Missy. Queen Latifah, obviously, you know our classics here. Clover Hope is fantastic writer. She’s been at this for quite a while. And she really did a deep dive here. And there’s just some really cool stuff there.
Maiysha Kai [00:40:33] Another, now I’m big on hidden talents, you know, like we were just talking to Jidenna, obviously, he’s got a lot of talents, a lot of things he wants to explore. And I love it when somebody surprises us. And one surprise I got this year was this trilogy of graphic novels by Chuck D, yo. Like, so this is called STEWdio. He calls it a Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D, and you really get to see another side to this hip-hop pioneer as he kind of takes us through these adventures. I mean, there’s three volumes here, but this is really I mean, it’s published on Enemy Books as in Public Enemy, and this is really a collector’s item. I totally recommend if you’re a fan of Chuck D, if you’re a fan of hip-hop, grab this. Because what were the odds? Did you see that coming? I didn’t see it coming, but those are my recommendations for this week. I hope you will be with us in the future for more episodes of Writing Black; remember, you can catch up on all of the old episodes on theGrio Black Podcast Network or wherever you get your podcasts. But until next time, I hope you have a great week. Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Writing Black. As always, you can find us on theGrio app or wherever you find your podcasts.
