On Friday (March 12), Jhené Aiko made her debut mixtape sailing soul(s) available on all streaming platforms. Sailing soul(s) originally dropped on the very same day back in 2011. On Twitter, Aiko opened up about her decision to re-release her mixtape on its tenth anniversary.
"This mixtape was a pivotal moment for me," Aiko wrote in her announcement. "When I was 12, I was signed to a label, singing songs I had no real connections to. Besides that, I had no real stories of my own to tell at 12...then I took a break to focus on school. In my teens, I was singing demo records and taking meetings."
"I met with one record exec who told me I needed to do a better job of selling myself when I came into meetings," Aiko recalled. "From that point on, I decided I would never try to ‘sell’ myself. I would simply BE myself and whoever felt a connection would SEE ME and my worth.”
When she was creating sailing souls, she envisioned a project that would "express me breaking free from that narrative of having to 'sell' myself." She went to explain that the cover art for the mixtape symbolized "that freedom of feeling unanchored...free to be me, going with the flow...going with the wind like a sailboat."
Ten years after dropping her first mixtape, Aiko is nominated for three Grammy awards, including Album of the Year, for her latest album Chilombo.
Photo: Getty