“Our Friendship Is So Strong”

It’s that time of year again when we get into an artist’s Top lists, and Jhené Aiko is kicking it off this time around. The Los Angeles native has collaborated with her fair share of artists and musicians throughout her career, so when it comes to naming her Top 5 rappers and singers, it can prove to be difficult. Aiko recently caught up with DJ Khaled on his Amazon Music podcast The First One where she spoke about creating music as a form of therapy and learning to give up creative control.

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DJ Khaled wanted to know who Jhené has set aside for her Top 5 lists for both rappers and singers, and many of her choices won’t surprise the public. “Oh God, don’t do this to me,” she told Khaled before naming her favorite rap artists. “Lord. Okay. Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg.”

Next came the singers, and she seemed to stick within the last two generations of R&B greats. “Brandy, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Sade.” The singer also gave some insight on her relationship with Detroit rapper Big Sean, saying that upon first meeting him, she felt as if they were already acquainted.

“When I first met Sean, the one thing I can say is that he immediately felt familiar like I knew him already,” said the singer. “I was comfortable with him immediately, because he like, just came into my session at No I.D.‘s studio. I had never felt that feeling of like, I’ve met you before. We’ve been together before. We’ve been in each other’s life, even past lives, and I think what’s cool about me and Sean is that our friendship is so strong, our friendship is really strong.”

“That has made our relationship what it is,” Jhené added. “Just that foundation of real friends who know each other on that level of—not the level like, oh, let me try to impress you or let me try to pretend to be someone else. We got to know each other already, you know, on the level of like, I have a headscarf on, I don’t even care what you think about how I look right now.”

Check out a few clips from her interview with DJ Khaled below and gear up to hear these two collaborate in the future.