#Big sean beware album cover full#

Soon she was signed to No I.D.вЂ™s Def Jam imprint, opening for Nas and Lauryn Hill, and cracking the Hot 100 for the first time on future love interest Big SeanвЂ™s вЂњBeware.вЂќ Aiko became a radio mainstay in her own right with 2014 breakthrough single вЂњThe Worst,вЂќ a sweeping and luxuriant piano-led slow jam marked by stinging lines like вЂњPlease donвЂ™t take this personal/ But you ainвЂ™t shit/ And you werenвЂ™t special.вЂќ With a candidness matched by few of her peers, she adeptly blurred the line between rapping and singing, creating the feeling that you were listening in to a phone call to an estranged ex. The aesthetic was comparable to DrakeвЂ™s breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone and the cloud rap that was blowing up in the hip-hop underground, but few singers were inhabiting that sonic environment as naturally as Aiko. Largely written by Aiko and produced by the duo Fisticuffs, the project established AikoвЂ™s signature sound, a deeply chill and often melancholy spin on R&B that found her dispensing real talk with an airy, conversational vocal presence. When she finally re-emerged in 2011, she did so with some significant support in the form of guest spots from Kanye West, Drake, Gucci Mane, Miguel, and fledgling star Kendrick Lamar on debut mixtape Sailing Soul(s). She was debuting singles on 106 & Park by the following year, but her debut album My Name Is JhenГ© never came out due to tensions with Epic Records, who agreed to let her out of her contract.ДЄfter taking a few years away from the spotlight, Aiko was working her way back into the music industry by 2007, but a surprise pregnancy put her career on hold for a bit. Back then, she was marketed as a cousin of LilвЂ™ Fizz from the boy band B2K, a childhood friend she wasnвЂ™t actually related to - she makes brief appearances in the groupвЂ™s вЂњ Why I Love YouвЂќ and вЂњ Uh HuhвЂќ videos - and her music from the era reflects the skittering, upbeat aesthetic of landscape shaped by Timbaland and the Neptunes. In 2002, as a young teenager, she placed a song called вЂњ Cherry PieвЂќ on the soundtrack to the Dana Carvey flop The Master Of Disguise and went on to appear on other soundtracks like Barbershop and You Got Served.

#Big sean beware album cover full#

Now that itвЂ™s back in the top 10, rising to #6 on this weekвЂ™s chart thanks to the release of its deluxe edition two Fridays ago, the time seems right to give Aiko her due.Д«efore she broke through to the rap and R&B mainstream in the early 2010s, Aiko had been active within the music industry for a full decade. Chilombo slipped past me upon initial release around the time it dropped I was focused on Doja Cat and Niall Horan and the anniversary of *NSYNCвЂ™s No Strings Attached. The album debuted with a highly impressive 152,000 equivalent album units and 38,000 in sales - good enough for #1 in many weeks, but Aiko finished second behind Lil Uzi VertвЂ™s Eternal Atake. ItвЂ™s a self-titled project of sorts, named for her surname (her full name is JhenГ© Aiko Efuru Chilombo). SheвЂ™s one of her generationвЂ™s defining R&B singers and maybe the single most underrated star in music today.ДЄiko released Chilombo, her third album, back in March. Yet Aiko, 32, has spent the past decade quietly building up a sterling catalog with a subtly massive influence. SheвЂ™s never had a #1 album or a top 10 single, and no militant stan army has mobilized in her name to beat back online dissent.

You wouldnвЂ™t necessarily know it because Aiko has always been a moody and understated presence - someone who lays back in the cut letting you come to her rather than making herself inescapable.