Hip Hop artist Jidenna recently released his second album, the Afrobeat-tinged 85 to Africa, which Pitchfork says “invokes a metaphorical highway to Africa, uniting the sounds of the sprawling diaspora.”
Issued through Janelle Monáe’s Epic-distributed Wondaland Records, the album is a clever mix of Hip Hop and contemporary African music, with lyrical themes inspired by the events that transpired after Jidenna’s 2017 eviction from the Atlanta house in which he was living.
Left without a home, the Grammy-nominated/Soul Train Music Award-winning artist decided to journey to Africa, a quest during which he contemplated America’s problems with race and immigration, eventually turning them into song fodder.
In a press release, Jidenna says his unceremonious eviction “felt like the story of being black in America. We’re living in this beautiful house…everything is dandy, career’s going well, we’re paying the lease on time, we’re doing everything right and then, out of nowhere, at 6 a.m. in the morning, we’re displaced.”
Befitting the themes, 85 to Africa features an international guest list, with American artists like GoldLink and St. Beauty joining African performers like Mr. Eazi and Seun Kuti, son of Afrobeat trailblazer Fela Kuti.
8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. $25. Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Corryville, bogarts.com.
