We made this character played by Chief Obi, a Nigerian-American comedian, who gives you that drunken wisdom. My family were palm wine and palm oil traders during the colonization of Nigeria. In a lot of West Africa, in the Philippines, palm trees produce a sap that, when it ferments, pretty swiftly becomes a potent drink, palm wine. You have a narrator character that speaks to you at the beginning of the record and pops up a few times. When you have the greats, people you look up to, affirm you, it means everything. Play it for Kent Jones he runs out the session, we supposed to work on a song that night, but heвЂ™s like, вЂњI gotta go, I gotta go reboot.вЂќ I didnвЂ™t know people were ready for that fusion. She said he literally runs out of the studio when he hears it, like, вЂњI canвЂ™t listen to any more, that songвЂ™s too unique, too incredible.вЂќ Play it for Kanye, same thing. Reid thatвЂ™s the one.вЂќ That was the first big affirmation outside of Wondaland. This is not like, вЂњOh, yeah, the women love this love song.вЂќ This is dudes, and theyвЂ™re riding hard for it, like, вЂњPlease tell L.A. You got 20 motherfuckers in that room, mostly men. WeвЂ™re going through tracks, that one comes on, and they go bananas. You know what was dope about that record? I took the song over to Stankonia Killer MikeвЂ™s there, Big BoiвЂ™s there. ThatвЂ™s a special song to me to dig deep and show that side of myself. IвЂ™ve never really made that many love records. That song is a product of those moments, when IвЂ™d be singing those melodies, those Harry Belafonte melodies, but fusing that with West African Highlife and trap music. I didnвЂ™t grow up in a very musical household, but during the holidays, my mother used to always play Nat King Cole, good old Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin. To me itвЂ™s one of the pinnacles of the album. The fusion of different styles on вЂњBambiвЂќ seems like a good example of showing many sides. My fear was that I wasnвЂ™t showing all sides of myself, to the point where if I wore a Snapback, which IвЂ™ve worn for more years of my life than IвЂ™ve worn suits, than suddenly people will be like, вЂњOh, thatвЂ™s not him.вЂќ I wear T-shirts when IвЂ™m out and about sometimes. I donвЂ™t want to say never but itвЂ™s highly unlikely. Someone asked me two days ago, вЂњDo you fear losing yourself? Losing yourself in the pressures of the label, the pressures of the industry, in the game?вЂќ That could never happen to me. And when you from anonymity to this superhero guy in a three-piece suit, for the sake of your sanity and for the sake of the things that actually made you successful and brought you that notoriety, you need to isolate yourself. I was on the road so much that year, I donвЂ™t think it came back to the studio for maybe six months. In 2015, I was completely focused on the promotion of вЂњClassic Man.вЂќ It took me away from the studio.

Why did you want to work alone like that at the beginning? What happened is, as we were traveling and gearing up for the promotion of the album, I made a second album with Nana Kwabena, and when we listened to the songs, everybody was like, вЂњIf you merge those two albums, youвЂ™re actually going to have a masterpiece.вЂќ So here we are. We did have an original release date, a couple, the last one being in October. The production team included Nate Wonder, Andrew Horowitz, Roman GianArthur the whole Wondaland crew had a hand in making it a special album. We spent the first six months of 2016 tightening up the sound. I wrote and produced the foundation of all the music that people are hearing now. Nobody was around at all I missed the holiday season with my family to work on the album. Jidenna spoke with Rolling Stone about composing his new album in isolation, playing songs for legendary producers like Pharrell and the ways in which politics affect his music.ДЄ year ago I hunkered down and spent 30 days alone at the studio.

Jidenna the chief album