I was born in Wisconsin, but I quickly moved to Nigeria as a toddler.

Jidenna

Categorized in : I Was Born Born Toddler Nigeria

A great tailor is like a great personal trainer - they tailor that suit to your natural physique.

trainer your personal great

My style is not specific to the antebellum South, but it's heavily inspired by the Jim Crow era.

jim-crow era inspired style

I'm the guy on the corner that is slightly peculiar but fun and funky.

corner funky guy fun

For me, it's important that as you're introducing yourself, you show different dimensions.

yourself me you important

It's better to do your purpose imperfectly than to do someone else's purpose perfectly.

your someone better purpose

I don't have one geographic location that I'm exclusively loyal to.

geographic location loyal

Jesus' birthday is commercialized, so of course, Black History Month is commercialized.

month black birthday history

Everything you touch touches you.

touch everything you

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.

me music father history

I am, always have been, and always will be proud of my Nigerian heritage.

i-am will heritage proud

Swanky means classy and funky.

classy means funky

I describe myself as a big kid with an old soul, I'm very playful whimsical, but I definitely have that old soul as well.

old big myself soul

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.

have-fun job man simple

I work predominantly with tailors from Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.

nigeria ghana work

I myself have been scrutinized by militarized police, but I know officers who actually handle themselves in a certain way that makes me feel safe.

feel myself me police

When hip-hop came along, men and women started dressing down as a form of rebellion.

dressing down women men

The one thing that I learned in college, actually, was that you may reach tremendous highs and tremendous lows.

reach you college may

I reached rock bottom halfway through college. And it was - because of all the pressure that I think we're talking about right now - the pressure to learn how to budget, the pressure to really abandon everything that you ever learned. You don't have a comfort zone anymore. You don't have your neighborhood. You don't have your family with you.

think you comfort-zone family

My father raised me to build computers, hardware. Literally, as an 8 year old, I had a soldering iron and circuit boards, and this was in neighbourhoods that wouldn't have a whole lot of money or anything. And I figured out ways to just hustle.

computers me money father

I thought the suit was something that would suit me.

suit something thought me