By 2008, she’d given birth to a daughter-and the notion of recording a free mixtape. She spent the next several years working with different producers and writing songs.
But after two years under contract, Aiko asked to be released to finish school and “explore my options.” Signed at 13 to Epic along with B2K by management/production company the Ultimate Group, Aiko earned her first credits singing on various releases by the R&B act in 2002. Older sisters Miyoko and Jamila were in R&B group Gyrl. Her pediatrician dad plays guitar and writes songs. Jhené Aiko Chilombo grew up in Los Angeles in a musical family. She understands full-on melodies and emotion but writes freestyle lyrics on par with hip-hop depth and complexity. “When I heard Jhené,” he says, “she immediately struck me as the first female voice in what I call the new wave of R&B.
11, is the first project under Def Jam subsidiary Artium, the imprint established by noted producer/Def Jam executive VP of A&R Dion “No I.D.” Wilson, who signed Aiko as his first artist in late 2011.
“I’m grateful to finally put out something people can buy,” she says. Now Aiko is ready to go from supporting player to stand-alone star with “Sail Out,” her formal solo debut, an EP intended to appease her growing fan base while they wait for her full-length, tentatively titled “Souled Out,” expected in the second quarter next year.
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