I am not this imageI am not my name(Jhene Aiko Efuru Chilombo). I am not my age( March 16 1988). I am not my ethnicity(Japanese, African American, Native American, etc….). I am not where I was born and raised(Los Angeles, California).
I am
A mother to a beautiful girl named Namiko. A baby sister to 3 brothers, 3 sisters and a big sister to 1. The daughter of Christina Yamamoto and Karamo Chilombobut more relevantly, the Daughter of Water, Earth and the Sun.
I signed to Epic/TUG as a 12 year old child, and asked to be released from both companies at the age of 16 to finish high school. I escaped the made up world of Hollywood to experience the natural beauty of the real world.
I am a writer, so I never stopped writing. I am a singer, so I never stopped singing. I am a student of life, so I never stopped learning and experiencing.
Shortly before I conceived my daughter, I stepped back into the field and took a meeting with a label head. In this meeting, I was innocently told, to “sell” myself “when walking into these meetings.”
That’s when I decided I would sail my “self” rather than sell my “self”.
-Jhené Aiko