Everything you need to know about Jhené Aiko’s new album, Westside Whimsy
Following the success of her Grammy-nominated album, Chilombo, which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 in 2020, her latest project is filled with fresh R&B cuts and features that will tickle hip-hop heads, too.
Featuring appearances from Ab-Soul (“Love Bomb”) and Larry June (“Neighbors”), the new release has also piqued the interest of a wider fandom, as Kendrick Lamar spits on track 14, titled “So Good”, marking another rare outing for the rapper.
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick’s involvement isn’t just a clickbait feature designed to draw listeners, as the two celebrate a creative relationship stretching back more than 16 years. Aiko originally appeared on “Growing Apart (To Get Closer),” while Lamar responded in kind, laying a verse on “Stay Ready (What a Life).”
While the album is pitched as an LA-native project, it can be described more broadly as a California sound, as Larry June is from San Francisco, something he frequently represents and reiterates.
“It’s a Lifestyle”: Inspiration and Build Up
Citing “West Coast car culture” and 1990s music, the album sonically dapples between contemporary R&B and hints of the former era.
The Westside Whimsy name originally surfaced publicly through an Erewhon smoothie collaboration. When the singer was pressed on whether it was really the title of her album, she said: “It’s a lifestyle.” Ultimately, the album title may already have been in the works.
A Deeper Meaning
Filled with ambient tonalities alongside Aiko’s polished yet textured vocals, the album is much more than its laid-back exterior suggests. This is exemplified by the opening run of “Wild Cat(s),” “Ghost,” “Break” and “Love Bomb,” where the R&B songstress links her tendency to detach with her parents’ “untameable” personalities.
But it moves deeper into what haunts her. Aiko also celebrates motherhood through tracks like “Nami’s Haiku,” which subsequently slides into “A Living Light” and “Golden Coast,” forming what some have interpreted as a cyclical sequence of birth and rebirth.
Tracklist and Features
- Wild Cat(s)
- Ghost
- Break
- Love Bomb featuring Ab-Soul
- Ceiling (Freestyle)
- Nothing Nice To Say
- He Belongs
- Like, Whatever featuring Tyga
- You
- Don’t Be That Guy
- Lullaby
- Neighbors featuring Larry June
- Mine
- So Good featuring Kendrick Lamar
- Beach Boy
- Unicorn
- I Don’t Mind
- Nami’s Haiku
- A Living Light
- Golden Coast featuring OHMA
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