To celebrate the 10th anniversary of her debut mixtape, sailing soul(s), acclaimed singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko has made the release available on streaming services.
The 13-track project has been added to DSPs as a thank you to Aiko’s loyal and ever-growing fanbase which have been calling for it’s inclusion on major platforms for quite sometime. Aiko posted about the release on Instagram:
this mixtape was a pivotal moment for me. when i was 12 i was signed to a label, singing songs i had no real connection to. besides that, i had no real stories of my own to tell at 12 lol. 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 at ‘selling’ myself when i came into meetings. dressing like myself, singing like myself, talking like myself… wasn’t enough. i thought, ‘why do i have to sell myself? why do i have to try to convince you of my worth? of who i am??? 🧐’ 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.
Despite being independently released on her birthday back on March 16, 2011, sailing soul(s) was packed with features from some of the biggest artists on the scene as Aiko’s buzz started to explode. Along with artists like Kanye West, Gucci Mane and Kendrick Lamar, sailing soul(s) also included a feature from Drake on the Bei Maejor-produced “July,” which interpolated “Shawty Is Da Shit” by The-Dream, and “The Siamese Cat Song / What’s Going on Down There?” by Peggy Lee.
Aiko would go on to appear on Drake’s third studio album, Nothing Was The Same (“From Time”), which dropped in Sept. 2013, and a few weeks later it was revealed that the Los Angeles-native would open for Drizzy on on his Would You like a Tour? tour.
Sadly, “July,” which was the only song on the original sailing soul(s) not written by Aiko—it was written by Micah Powell—is not featured on the new digital stream. Neither is the track with Kendrick. However, there are four new bonus songs on the project that might make up for it. At least both songs remain easy to track down on YouTube.
Today, Aiko is gearing up for today’s 2021 Grammy Awards where she’s nominated in three different categories. Her third studio album, Chilombo, is nominated for Album of the Year, and Best Progressive R&B Album, while the John Legend-assisted single, “Lighting and Thunder,” is nominated for Best R&B Performance.
You can find sailing soul(s) on various digital streaming platforms including Apple Music and Spotify.
You can follow @JheneAiko on Instagram.
