Jidenna has spoken out about his love for Wizkid’s music.
The
Nigerian-born American singer is currently having his best career
moments yet, after his single ‘Classic man’ became a hit and catapulted
him to the top of the charts.
“I love his voice, I love his production team. I was just hanging out with them recently.” Jidenna told Billboard in a recent interview.
“I’m looking forward to what’s to come, and I love his catalog already." He further said.
Jidenna
and Wizkid performed on stage at the Africkan Festival back in July,
and as it stands now, a collaboration between both acts is most
definitely a highly anticipated one.
Jidenna also
further disclosed that he is influenced by Nigeria’s Highlife music
which is the first music he ever listened to as a child.
Jidenna had been in
the news, finding himself as the topic of conversation earlier in July
as he opened up about his upbringing and being biracial with a
Nigerian-born father. In a recent interview with DJ Vlad, he details some of the dangers he faced traveling to his father's homeland simply based upon the color of his skin.
He has since cleared the air on his controversial comments on DJ Vlad in June. Jidenna further clarified his statement.
"What I said
was...I was referring to my mixed heritage, and being a man who may be
perceived as more valuable because you are light skinned, because you
look really closer to a white man which all around the world, a white
man, the white man is perceived as more valuable. Unfortunately light
skinned is often perceived as more valuable. So my comments were
referring to that. When I went home to bury my father it was the highest
kidnapping time in our area, the area that I am from, the South East
Nigeria. So my family in the village was concerned about me burying my
father so they said "look you have to take extra precautions this time
because one-you are a foreigner, you are coming from America, and then
two- your appearance is going to make you a target" he said.
Jidenna has been very vocal about Nigeria. Last month he was interviewed on The Breakfast Club alongside Janelle Monae and the group Deep Cotton.
After speaking about The Wondaland's group effort 'The Eephus EP' the discussion turned towards country of origin. Jidenna revealed Nigeria is a proud country where excellence is demanded.
"Nigeria
is a very proud place, and it's also a place where you try to humiliate
if you don't see excellence. I always tell the story of my father. I
remember coming to America, in the US you get a highest score on the
test and your teacher says "bring it home to your parents. show your
parents." So I brought it home to my father like "dad I got a 98 on my
math exam", and he said "ah ah 98? Where are the other two points? Go
there and bring them back, then I will celebrate with you" narrated Jidenna.
"And that's how I
grew up with everything I did, basketball, soccer, football. Everything
that I played. In Nigeria its standard to try to check somebody if you
see them making misstep. With the words that I said I didn't make a
miscalculation in my experience, but I can see how certain people
perceive that" he further said.
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