A sharp dresser, singer, and rapper with geographic connections ranging from Nigeria to U. It eventually went double platinum. The Eephus, a six-track showcase for the Wondaland crew, was released in August with the original "Classic Man" and a version featuring Kendrick Lamar. Mobisson gained further exposure performing his song "Long Live the Chief" on a season one episode of the Netflix Marvel series Luke Cage in July saw Mobisson issue the singles "Tribe" and "Sufi Woman" ahead of the release of his sophomore full-length effort 85 to Africa, which arrived later that August. AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully. Blues Classical Country.
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Ahead of his current tour, the year-old singer spoke to EW about creating an album that "felt accessible to anyone in the black diaspora. Naturally, the making of the record, which came out in late August, did start with a lengthy travel experience. Forced to leave the apartment, Jidenna began mulling over how he would make his next project a truly holistic display of his evolution. Still, neither element has ever been set in stone. Its success later affected his work on his debut record, The Chief. Not all of those compromises felt like me.
The GRAMMYs
Sitting in the Soho Grand Hotel, Jidenna is well-dressed as expected, sipping on tea with whiskey to calm his nerves from the eventual rollout of his second studio album 85 to Africa. When I bring up topics of a post-racial society, religion, and his journeys in Africa, he's careful and deliberate with his words — a culture nerd who can also be the life of a party. During our discussion, I reflected on the duality of someone who can make Billboard-charting pop singles but also dedicate a song to interracial marriages in America.
Lessons gleaned from his demanding father inspire "Classic Man" singer Jidenna to push beyond one-hit-wonder status. Next, he moved all the way to the suburbs of Boston, where blending in was again not an option. He barely had time to get publicity photos taken before it came out. But the artist himself never feared that fate. I knew I had a width and a depth that was just waiting to go out.
