Sovereignty seems to be the mission of Aiko’s proper debut Souled Out. Even if the accompanying Sail OutEP was still a rap friends roll call, “The Worst” proved she could go it alone if need be, rapping and all. Last year’s “The Worst” was a Technicolor reveal, a performance involved and emotional enough to shake frequent comparisons to cult pop-R&B stoic Cassie and break Aiko on a national level without a celebrity co-star leading the way. Her debut mixtape Sailing Soul(s) flourished by co-opting the minor key melodies and navel gazing oversharing of R&B radio’s wistful sad boys, but her delivery hewed a touch too vacant, her words too indistinct, to carry an entire project. Much of the conversation about Aiko posited her as a musical foil for her more widely known rapper friends. For over a decade, Los Angeles singer/songwriter Jhené Aiko has skirted the periphery of R&B stardom, thanks to an early association with the Omarion-led R&B boy band B2K, later work with Kendrick Lamar’s Black Hippy crew and more recently, Kanye mentor and Def Jam exec No I.D.’s Cocaine 80s collective.
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