

The two have been in the studio so much recently that they “already have a few” songs that could work as a follow up to their 2016 beloved project Twenty88, an album the two had to fight to release, the Detroit rapper recently told Joe Budden. There’s also collabs with John Legend, H.E.R., Miguel, Nas and, of course, Big Sean. Let’s be real: she did have all of you, and your cousins, singing about eatin’ booties and groceries. And before you think it’s too hippy-dippy, the single “P*$$Y Fairy (OTW)” is a clear indication that in everything Aiko does, including the albums that made us fall in love with her, her 2013 debut Sail Out and her 2014 follow-up Souled Out, there’s balance. If 2017’s Trip was Aiko’s escape from her grief through psychedelic drugs, Chilombo is her reclaiming of power through vibrational healing. “I recorded it on my phone and thought this would be perfect,” she said of her mantra music. There’s soul-tugging vibes, an interlude that she produced herself even real lightning and thunder from a rare rainy day in LA. The moniker is perfect for an album that is peak Aiko. Karamo Chilombo, chose himself during “the Malcolm X era,” Aiko said. The singer gave this album a name she knows intimately. Sharing it is also therapeutic because when people express to you that they are relating to it, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone in what I’m going through.'” It’s turning pain or frustration into something into art. “It’s like journaling or when people paint.

“I make music for healing purposes, for myself,” she told ESSENCE after the listening session. The R&B singer got into alternative medicine, meditation and sound healing after having too many side effects from prescriptions. Every song was originally freestyled and had an undercurrent of crystal bowls meant to stimulate different chakras, or energy points, in the body.

Incense is burning and I’ve just listened to Chilombo in its entirety, which is how Aiko prefers fans to experience her new project that’s equal parts healing and bops. “She knows,” I said, trying without luck to get comfortable on a too plush deep purple couch in one of Germano’s recording studios in NoHo.
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Does she know my name? Like, how to pronounce it?” Aiko asked, waving a waist-length jumbo box braid away from her face.
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Despite being a little under the weather, the Los Angeles native braved a nearly six hour flight to New York City to play her new album, Chilombo, to a studio full of label reps, journalists and streaming service adjutants. She’s dripped in a reflective silver Dolce & Gabbana tracksuit with white ankle booties. That was me being a fan when I sat down late last month with one of my favorite singers. “I say, ‘Alexa, play Jhené Aiko on Pandora,’ every single morning.”
