Jidenna is gearing up to drop his third studio album, ME YOU & GOD, and ahead of its release he’s opened up about some of the project’s key influences.
The album, which is due to arrive on May 5, is a departure in sound for the Nigerian-American star, whose first two projects — The Chief (2017) and 85 To Africa (2019) — draw from his African roots and encompass a wide range of vibes, including Afrobeats, dancehall, R&B and Hip Hop.
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With ME YOU & GOD, Jidenna taps more into the music he listens to at home. “Most of my input is in like a psychedelic soul, funk spectrum,” he explained to HipHopDX. “I listen to late ‘60s, early ‘70s psychedelic rock. I listen to the bands doing the neo version of that. A lot of my intake is not necessarily what my output is.”
His most recent track, “Front End,” is a colorful mid-tempo bop, packed with funk and vitality, laced with warped bass licks and gorgeous space-age sounds that combine to create a “muthafuckin’ vibe.” The track comes on the heels of the album’s first two singles, “Blush” and “Safe.”
Speaking to DX about what inspired the change in musical direction, the Grammy-nominated rapper, singer, songwriter, producer and actor said the coronavirus pandemic gave him some much needed time and space to figure out exactly what he wanted to create.
“I didn’t have to worry about the industry,” Jidenna said of his time in lockdown. “I just sat in a downtown loft in L.A. while the world was going ablaze, and I looked out the window and worked during magic hour. I took my lil chocolate mushrooms, a small microdose, and burned my spliff, and I was like, ‘What music do you wanna make?'”
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He continued: “I needed space from the world. I didn’t wanna hear words and I didn’t listen to words, I listened to instrumentals from 2020 to 2021 — or Khruangbin. I listened to Tame Impala. I went back and listened to The Kinks and The Doors. I wasn’t in a space where I could consume everything I had consumed prior. So that’s what the result was: not worrying about industry, not worrying about anything.
“I made an album that had a different sonic scape than anything prior. But all my homies know me and they’re like, ‘Yeah, this is you. I know you would do this. This is you without ego. You make songs like this all the time but you never put it out.’ So that’s like the sonic differentiation.”
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ME YOU & GOD, which Jidenna produced alongside longtime collaborator Roman GianArthur, Nana Kwabena, and U.K. producers KZ and Christian Gregory, feels like an extension of Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover‘s 2016 album Awaken, My Love! along with nods to André 3000‘s 2003 masterpiece The Love Belowscattered throughout. According to the “Classic Man” hitmaker, this was done on purpose.
“Gambino’s project and André’s project were completely different time periods. Both are miraculous masterpieces in my opinion. And they were departures,” Jidenna explained. “You could tell there was a funk in both of ’em, in different ways on The Love Below than on Awaken, My Love!
“I feel like I had to nod to those guys because they gave me the courage to make a departure, for better or worse. I don’t think either of them were thinking about record sales, they were just like, ‘This is where I’m at. This is what I’m dealing with,’ and that’s how I feel. So the nods are just nods of respect to those two artists.”
But more than just Glover and Three Stacks, there’s one other artist who gets a nod on Jidenna’s third album: Lil Yachty — more specifically his most recent album, Let’s Start Here., which was a huge departure sonically for the Atlanta rapper.
“I think Rolling Stone will one day rate that album much higher on their list. I think it’s a fantastic project,” Jidenna told DX. “It was very well produced, I think he stretched himself, I think he grew a lot. I’m a huge fan of that. To hear it now I’m like, ‘Yes, thank God. I get to enjoy another project in this time.’ I felt like we had some of the same influences.”
Being that he started work on ME YOU & GOD in 2020 and Yachty’s new album was only released in January this year, Jidenna didn’t get to tap into the album’s powers on his own as much as he’d have liked to — but he loves it all the same.
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“I wish I had heard it way before because I would have got even more inspired with mine and probably would have gone even further out,” he admits. “But I heard it when we were pretty much done with this. So I love that.”
ME YOU & GOD arrives May 5 via Wondaland — pre-order it here.
In addition to the new album, Jidenna will be heading out on his headlining North American The Silk Road tour in July and August. Get tickets here and see the full list of dates below.
JULY 2023
14 – Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA
15 – Vogue – Vancouver, BC
16 – Roseland – Portland, OR
18 – Ace of Spades – Sacramento, CA
19 – The Warfield – San Francisco, CA
21 – Observatory – Santa Ana, CA
22 – The Novo – Los Angeles, CA
23 – House of Blues – San Diego, CA
25 – The Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ
27 – South Side Ballroom – Dallas, TX
28 – Emos – Austin, TX
29 – House of Blues – Houston, TX
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AUGUST 2023
1 – Joy Theater – New Orleans, LA
2 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA
4 – The Ritz – Raleigh, NC
5 – The NorVA – Norfolk, VA
6 – Baltimore Soundstage – Baltimore, MD
8 – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA
10 – Terminal 5 – New York, NY
11 – The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD
12 – House of Blues – Boston, MA
15 – History – Toronto, ON
17 – Majestic Theater – Detroit, MI
18 – The Vic – Chicago, IL
20 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
