Many other moments play out as either marred concepts or lost opportunities. His vocals are never outright bad, but not every genre he inserts himself into flatters him as well as his clothing choices. He’s unrecognizable on rap cuts (“The Let Out,” “Bully of the Earth”), corny on trap-influenced takes of Jamaican, Latin, and African styles (“Bambi,” “Adoara”), and downright pandering on late-album chart grabs (“Little Bit More,” “Some Kind of Way”). It’s intriguing to see a male rapper attempt to straddle both the streets and the dance floor with the unabashed style of Nicki Minaj or Azealia Banks, but like those rappers, the final results are not without their shortcomings. Unfortunately, this means he spends so much of The Chief attempting to prove his versatility that he never quite carves out a musical identity distinctly his own. Jidenna has attempted to market himself as a jack of all trades in the arts: rapper, singer, producer, actor, etc.

What we get is still a mixed bag, but not without its moments. He’s also made the wise choice to cut several of the staler singles leading up to The Chief’s release (yes, that includes “Classic Man”). Still, he’s got a few things going for him - his fashion sense is admittedly eye-catching, he’s got Janelle Monae’s endorsement, and his upbringing gives him more claim to that goofy Nigerian accent than Drake has to patois. Fashion inspired by antebellum plantation owners? Um, sure?). Decidedly pro-black in everything he does? Nice. This guy’s biggest problem is that he’s just way less interesting as a performer than he is on paper (heavily in touch with his African roots and influenced by Highlife style? Cool. Based on The Chief, I wonder if he had been telling a similar story about his childhood time in Nigeria. About eight years before that and a few towns over, Jidenna was graduating from Milton Academy, quite possibly the most prestigious private school in Massachusetts. His entire rapper persona was based on how he was so traumatized and hardened by 'what he saw” in the Bronx even though we all knew he lived in the upper-class Jewish part and had a pretty nice childhood. I once knew this “rapper” in high school who lived in the Bronx till he was five.

Jidenna the chief album