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The Roots and Big Sean accompanied Jhené Aiko during a soothing performance of “Moments” from her recently released Trip album.
“Moments” is a soft, yearning ballad. “Please take away the stress I don’t need,” Aiko sang, as the Roots played a swirl of keyboards and cymbals behind her. “You got me on my knees, baby, James Brown, please.” Big Sean harmonized with her briefly before echoing her themes – escapism through companionship – in a conversational verse: “I can’t watch the news lately, it’s been too depressing/ I’d rather be with you, bodies pressing and decompressing.”
Aiko and Big Sean have a longtime working relationship. Aiko appeared on the rapper’s hit single “Beware” in 2013, and the two reunited for “I Know” and “Win Some, Lose Some” in 2015. Last year, the two released an entire duet project as Twenty88, and the two have also been linked romantically.
Trip is just one piece of MAP (“Movie, Album and Poetry”), a project that captures Aiko working through the grief of her brother Miyagi’s death. “Writing was a form of therapy, so all of these things became part of what I was going through,” she told Rolling Stone.
Aiko’s single “While We’re Young” reached Number 33 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart last week. She’s also a featured guest on 2 Chainz’s “It’s a Vibe,” which sat at Number 20 in October.
