Jhené Aiko

[Kenysha75]

Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo (born March 16, 1988), is an American Pop/R&B singer/song writer.She was formerly signed to T.U.G./Epic Records, but left to continue her education. She was well known as "Lil' Fizz's cousin", however, they are not related. It was used as a marketing tool suggested by Chris Stokes to promote her through B2K and attract audience, but they were close like cousins.
Contents


1 Early life
2 B2K Cross-promotion and Other Releases
3 Personal life
4 Discography
4.1 Mixtapes
4.2 Singles
4.3 Featured Jhene Songs
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Jhené Aiko was born in Los Angeles, California and comes from a multicultural background. Her mother, Christina Yamamoto, is of Japanese, Spanish, Dominican descent and her father, Dr. Karamo Chilombo, is of African, Jewish, Yaqui, Choctaw, Cherokee, Navajo descent.[6][7] She mostly says she is Japanese, African American, Native American based on percentages, but identifies with all of her ethnicities.[8] She has four older full-siblings named Miyoko, Jamila, Jahi, and Miyagi. She also has three half-siblings (two older and one younger) through her father's side named Marcia, Dio, and Kareena. Her older sisters Miyoko and Jamila were in the R&B group Gyrl and toured with Immature, who were signed to MCA Records/Silas Records. This led to her first meeting with producer Chris Stokes when she was five years old. Eventually, Stokes heard her sing. When B2K signed with Epic Records, she was signed as well. She served as the opening act for B2K on the Scream Tour 3.
B2K Cross-promotion and Other Releases

A few of Jhené's songs are featured on B2K releases. Tracks five through eight on B2K's B2K: The Remixes - Volume 1 are sung by her. They were: My Name Is Jhene (Intro),[10] He Couldn't Kiss (Album Version),[10] Gonna Love You Anyway (Snippet),[10] and Stuck Like This (Snippet).[10] Santa Baby, a cover she recorded, was featured on B2K's Santa Hooked Me Up.[11] On Pandemonium!, she was featured as a guest vocalist on the song Tease,[12] and her song Dog[12] appeared as a bonus track on B2K's Pandemonium. The full version of Stuck Like This can be heard as the final track on The Remixes - Volume 2.[13] She has a video for her single NO L.O.V.E which debuted on BET 106 & Park when she was 15 years old.

Jhené has appeared in numerous music videos including O'Ryan's debut video, Take It Slow, B2K's debut video Uh Huh and Why I Love You, P.Y.T.'s Same Ol' Same Ol' (Remix)featuring Sarai, Play's M.A.S.T.E.R. (Part 2)featuring Lil' Fizz video and Morgan Smith's 2004 video Blow Ya Whistle.Jhené also has songs featured on the soundtracks of Barbershop,The Master of Disguise,You Got Served,The Proud Family and Byou.

Jhené is currently on an independent management team called LA's Finest. She also released a mixtape on March 16, 2011 entitled sailing soul(s).
Personal life

Jhené has a daughter by O'Ryan named Namiko Love Chilombo-Browner, who was born on November 19, 2008.
Mixtapes

Sailing Soul(s) (2011)

Singles
Year Title Chart positions Album
U.S. R&B
2003 No L.O.V.E. 5
[edit] Featured Jhene Songs
Year Song Album Album Artist
2002 My Name Is Jhene (Intro) B2K: The Remixes - Volume 1 B2K
He Couldn't Kiss (Album Version)
Gonna Love You Anyway (Snippet)
Stuck Like This (Snippet)
Cherry Pie The Master of Disguise Soundtrack Various Artists
Sneaky Barbershop Soundtrack
Santa Baby Santa Hooked Me Up B2K
Dog Pandemonium!
2003 Stuck Like This The Remixes - Volume 2
De Ja Vu Kids Choice Awards 2003 - Volume 4 Various Artists
2004 Happy You Got Served
2005 Right Here The Proud Family Soundtrack
2006 How It's Done Byou
2010 July Thank Me Later Drake
Growing Apart (To Get Closer) O(verly) D(edicated) Kendrick Lamar
2011 Fantasy Setbacks Schoolboy Q
Body on Me Believe in H.O.P.E. Wright H.O.P.E. Wright
Nothing New LongTerm: Mentality Ab-Soul
ivyleaguespins.files.wordpress.com
WIKIPEDIA

 

[Kenysha75]

H.O.P.E. & Jhene Aiko create "Real Now"

 

[Kenysha75]

marvins room jhene aiko's version

 

[Kenysha75]

you vs them Jhene Aiko at the Ritch SF

 

[Kenysha75]

stranger Jhene Aiko

 

[Kenysha75]

Jhene Aiko Exclusive Interview with Yeah Im Famous

 

[Kenysha75]

JHENE AIKO - STRANGER (Official Video)

 

[Kenysha75]

Jhené Aiko records "Growing Apart Too"

 

[Kenysha75]

Kendrick Lamar - Growing Apart (feat. Jhene Aiko)

 

[UrbanFashionista]

I LOVE Jhene! Her mixtape is my favorite R&B mixtape. She's so talent, Wish she sign a deal with a record label soon.

 

[Valentine27]

Wow, I was listening to "No Love" a loooong time ago.. it was in 2005 or something like that.. feels weird how time goes by!

 

[Kenysha75]

“I’m just a regular person”, says reigning queen of mixtapes, Jhene Aiko as she strolls into our shoot in Beverly Hills with her bouncing 2-year-old daughter in tow. A far cry from many of her industry peers, Aiko is dressed down. Wearing simple sweats and an oversized t-shirt while toting a “mommy bag” over her shoulder she is, in a sense, regular. But there has been nothing regular about the journey that led Jhene Aiko to where she is in this very moment.


Many people would remember her as the sweet faced 14 year old who opened for then superstar boy group B2K and was pegged as cousin of member “Lil Fizz”. Jhene laughs at the memory now because though little has changed about her physically (she still stands at only 5’1 and 90 pounds) so much has happened since we first met her as a package deal decorated by a false story of relativity. “That was just a lie”, she says, “I was 12 years old and I got signed to Sony Epic with B2K, it was a tag-a-long type of deal. I didn’t really have a say in what was happening with my career so I went along with it. I didn’t know that they were going to say that every single time”, she finishes with a chuckle. Jhene is kind, soft spoken and baby faced but displays the grace and confidence of a woman true to the experiences she has lived through.


Though having been signed to record deal at only 12 years old and finding herself opening on great stages at only 14, Jhene Aiko grew up as normal as most. She shares the same story that many Americans find all too familiar. “My mother and father were divorced by the time I even realized what divorce was”, she explains, “We were lower middle class. I’m the youngest of 5 siblings and I grew up sharing everything with a whole bunch of people. There was one point where our house burned down and we all lived in two bedrooms”. But Aiko isn’t looking for sympathy. Her overall message is to stress that human beings share more commonalities than differences and it is in this that she grounds her artistry and has found peace even in her struggles. “People see me and they envision that I live a certain kind of life. I want everyone to know, I’m just a regular girl going through the same things as them”, she says in an even softer tone than usual showing glimpses of her true desire to reach people on a much deeper level than other artists. Though becoming a mother in recent years, Jhene’s transformation came earlier than most.


It came in her courage to walk away from music at the age of 16 by first splitting ties with her Production Company, TMG, and roots to B2K through manager Chris Stokes and focusing full time on her education. “The music wasn’t my own, I was a kid so I was just recording the songs that the label wanted, I wasn’t involved in my career…I don’t even consider myself an artist back then”, Aiko says, “I was just there, put in a good position and I decided that I wanted to focus on school and get that out of the way”. Luckily for us, the split from her management and break from music did not derail her. Instead it gave Jhene a newfound confidence and accountability for her art that she carried with her as she sought to regain the authenticity of her passion for songwriting and singing. Being a veteran in the business at only high school age also afforded her with a fiery, unfaltering expectation of herself and of those who will have a hand in the next stage of her success. “When I graduated from high school, I went harder in music and I had a couple of meetings. I was so used to all of the politics in the music industry and I just wanted to sing…and write, that’s it. I took a meeting, at the time I was pregnant though I didn’t know it yet, I was sitting there with this label head and he loved everything I played for him but he felt like I didn’t “sell myself” and I was like what does that even mean?!” she says with a look of disgust, “I’m not a product, either you want to work with me or you don’t. You see the vision and you want to be partners in this or not because I’m not going to come in here and put on a show and be fake. You either like it or you don’t”.


Yes.


Aiko is not some good girl puppet of the industry. She is real. Real enough to bear the responsibility of her decisions namely her mothering duties to a 2 year old bouncing baby girl, Nami and strong enough to let the love and struggle of her new life propel her into a part of her career that is nothing short of motivational. At 20 years old she gave birth to her joy and then jumped head first into developing what is now one of the most downloaded and praised mixtapes from a female artist, Sailing Soul(s). Upon first listen, there is a truth and rawness that is so present in the lyrics and delivery that it brings flashbacks of music from late singer, Aaliyah. Her pleasant voice and, dare I say, swag, oozes over each well crafted portion of the 13 track masterpiece drawing comparisons to mixtapes from music peers Drake, Frank Ocean and The Weeknd. Aiko’s Sailing Souls often plays as an open diary of a woman learning, losing and loving and she credits that to the change her life underwent after the birth of her daughter. “I just had so much to say. I’m not with her father so I was dealing with that. Plus I had a boyfriend and after that I had another little thing. I was in between having a place to live—it was just a lot going on during the making of Sailing Souls”, she explains, “every single song was written by me except for “july”, I would put Nami to bed and just lay a scratch, or just a freestyle. Whatever was on my mind that day or whatever I went through…it all made it onto the album”. Her mellow cool provides listeners with a sound abandoned by female artists, a pleasant and soft tone missing from music for many years until now, and her subject matter seems to stretch over to male listeners as well.


So how is she managing to find success by going against the grain?


“It’s all about being honest with yourself. People feel that. I’ll never again sing something that I’m not connected to, that’s not coming from me. I’m always going through a lot in my life; it’s always chaotic and confusing. Why would I hide that?” she says as her two-year-old climbs under the table we’re sitting at and demands to be shown attention. Prompted by the beauty of seeing her give her undivided attention to her child in that moment, I immediately ask about her journey into motherhood at such a young age. As her face lights up in a way that shows the admiration she has for her daughter she responds. “It’s taught me patience and love IS patient. I’ve learned a lot about myself just through her and watching her. I’ve learned what love really is, what it feels like to have a purpose and to have a life in your hands. When you have a child it puts everything into perspective. You have to put aside all of your wants and focus on what really matters.” As the number of young mothers is steadily increasing so is the stigma associated with it but Jhene has another way of seeing it. “Love is everything and you have to make the mistakes but never give up on it. A lot of people will say ‘look at what he’s letting that girl do to him or look what she let that guy to do to her life’ but people don’t understand that we were put on earth for this, she says motioning towards her toddler, “we were put on this Earth to recreate and it’s important that we find someone to do that with. Everything else is a distraction. Career, entertainment—everything we fill our life with is distracting us from love. Love is not the distraction, love is why we are here”. And as many young mothers work double time to ensure their children don’t make the same “mistakes” they did, Jhene is dedicated to being as transparent in parenting as she is in her music. “My job as her mom is to be honest with her. I don’t want to shelter her from the world. I won’t be that mother who’s like ‘she shouldn’t see this, she shouldn’t hear that’. This is the world she’s going to grow up in. She needs to see and know what’s going on around her. And I’ll let her listen to my music. I want her to. When she’s older I want her to be able to say she knew me then and be able to relate to it and see my growth”.


Though Jhene’s love for her daughter is apparent, she is as dedicated to her fans. As we bring our time together to an end we discuss her legacy and with intensity she looks me in my eyes and explains why she does what she does. “I want people to find themselves in my music. I want to be that artist where a person listens to my songs, reflects and then they feel good about it. Now they’re over that struggle and it never comes back up,” she explains, “I want listeners to get lost in my music and when they’re lost they find themselves. I really want it to be therapeutic and healing to the soul. I don’t do it for people to say something when I’m gone. This music is for the now. I want the feeling to last forever. I want people to feel it and through it…to feel me.” And then her intensity breaks as she smiles at me and says “it’d be nice if people say that they loved me though” as I laugh at her for not recognizing that she is closer than she thinks.

This “normal” mother, singer, writer and LA native is well on her way to building a career worth remembering. And it’s safe to say we all love it.
edgemagazinesite.com

 

[Kenysha75]

Jhene Aiko - Higher

 

[Kenysha75]

ScHoolboy Q ft JHene Aiko - Fantasy

 

[Kenysha75]

Ab-Soul JHENE AIKO - Nothin New

 

[Kenysha75]

JHENE AIKO | Perfect Stranger

Some of you are going to read the headline of this post and wonder why it look so much time for Jhene Aiko‘s name to appear somewhere on the site. Since the release of her acclaimed mixtape, sailing soul(s), she has blasted through the music blogsophere in a major way. Admittedly, due my slight hiatus from the internet world, it has taken some time for me to slip into Ms. Aiko’s trancing musical dreamworld.

Upon first listen, I was instantly captured by the singer/songwriter’s sensual and distinctive voice, which gracefully tangles the focused, eclectic and moody sound of her music in its addictive web of seduction. Upon subsequent sessions with Jhene’s creations, I’ve realized that her music stands out as more than just an impressive body of work.It is a rare indication of what the R&B of tomorrow sounds like. Joining fellow new kids on the block, Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, Jhene Aiko lends her talent to a movement that reconstructs the style, direction and overall feel of R&B. It’s more adventurous, uninhibitedly honest, and wildly distinguishable from its estranged past.

As I continue to seep deeper into the soothing sounds of sailing soul(s), the more I look forward to the promising work that Jhene Aiko will send our way in the near future. I may be months late in my fandom, but I can officially declare that I am in love yet again.
soundonmars.com

 

[UrbanFashionista]

She just signed with Def Jam Record label! I'm so happy for her! I been a fan every since she came out, back with B2K was around!

 

[Kenysha75]

yeah so happy for her but I hope she keeps on the same way she was goin with the mixtape

 

[UrbanFashionista]

^ Yeah I hope so too! I Love her mixtape.

 

[Kenysha75]

H.o.p.e ft Jhene Aiko - Body on Me