Jidenna Theodore Mobisson Quotes
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Jesus' birthday is commercialized, so of course, Black History Month is commercialized.
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I wanted to remind myself and others of the old Jim Crow, so that we can remind ourselves that we're still living in the new Jim Crow. I feel it's important to dress in the fashion of the times.
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If one door is closed, break a window anyway.
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I thought I had everything going for me. I wasn't listening to nobody. And my dad was like, 'Uh-uh, you can't make money from music. You have to be a doctor, a lawyer, engineer. Something that's going to do something for this world. Music doesn't do anything.' And I had to fight that, his passion, and fight the society that I was from.
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The trick of Afrobeats is it doesn't just move your upper body, it moves your hips as well, and I think that's what people have been missing in popular music for a while. I think that's what people need around the world.
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I think each artist lives with purpose. A strong sense of purpose. We know who's come before us.
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I don't have one geographic location that I'm exclusively loyal to.
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I was raised with a father who really believed in the bridge between all Africans around the world.
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There was no question that I was going to school.
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Every single place that's brushed upon me has made me the artist that I am - from Nigerian Highlife music and the vocal melodies that I grew up on when I would be sitting with my father and his fellow chiefs, to the funk and freeness of the Bay Area groove, to L.A.'s smooth G-funk legacy, Brooklyn's lyricism, and now Atlanta's trap history.
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I like quality over quantity.
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In Brooklyn, all the kids call me the 'Willy Wonka of the Hood.'
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I am, always have been, and always will be proud of my Nigerian heritage.
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The most important thing for me is the thing I strive for. But I also hope when I play my songs for people - adult, children, mostly children - that they feel mighty, they feel noble, they feel like warriors. And they feel like they can do anything in the world because that's how I feel.
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I think hard-core capitalism tends to commercialize everything.
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I feel like we haven't dealt with the ghosts of America's past, and the way to deal with it is to confront it, so every time people see me, I want them to be reminded and to confront that ghost.
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A classic man is a distinguished man. He cares about taste and his craft. He's all about the simple model that I live by - eat, drink, be swanky, and have fun getting the job done. He makes sure that he's excellent in all things and that he cares about his neighborhood immensely.
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I work predominantly with tailors from Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.
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People thought 'Classic Man' was processed. But then they realized, 'Oh, this guy actually is that man, and he actually dresses like that.'
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When I originally came to the U.S., my mother came with a couple hundred dollars to her name. I didn't know we were struggling because she hid that from me. But it was definitely a struggle to get through life and get through school.
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I thought the suit was something that would suit me.
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My nickname is 'Chief' because my father was a chief in Nigeria.
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America is haunted by an apparition steeped in slavery, and I wanted to remind everyone that, 'Yo, we've got to handle this.'
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The one thing that I learned in college, actually, was that you may reach tremendous highs and tremendous lows.