EP Review: Twenty88 | Big Sean & Jhene Aiko

A collaboration between Big Sean and Jhene Aiko is something that 2016 needed. Big Sean’s last album Dark Sky Paradise was his best work so far, and the album that really created his own sound. Jhene’s last album Souled Out dropped 2 years ago. The artists have pretty much gone into hibernation since then. The two brought together their talents to form the group “Twenty88.” It’s hard to tell if Twenty88 is a one time thing or if they will drop more sexy R&B albums in the future.

The self titled album by Twenty88 is bound to be something special, one can only expect this album to have beautiful high notes from Jhene and low, smooth bars from Sean about love, lust, and ex’s. The EP project is about the tension and power struggle that couples go through, only having 8 songs. On the other hand, there are songs about the real love and passion that comes after those meaningless fights. Both Jhene and Sean have had their fair share of relationships and side pieces. This album has songs that are both personal to them, and songs that every person can relate too. There are also a lot of songs that people simply can not relate to. You only have those experiences if you are at the celebrity status of Big Sean or Jhene Aiko. It is fun to listen to some of these songs and get a taste of what it is like to be in  love with an A list celebrity.

Starting off the project is the song ‘Déjà vu.’ Big Sean drops his classic “straight up” line to start the song. When you hear “straight up” you know the song is about to be lit. With soft Drake like beats, we get a smooth harmony between the two artists that makes you rewind to listen again.  The song is about a memory the both Sean and Jhene share that brings them back to the times they had with each other while they were together. The couple has been broken up for 3 years and are just seeing each other again for the first time since. Reminiscing on the past and how great they were together. Only problem is that it’s far too late. She already has a kid, is dating an athlete, and doesn’t have time for him. The damage is done. The only thing they can do now it look back at what they used to have.

The second song ‘Selfish’ is a song where the artists express how they felt about the person playing hard to get. Sean speaks on how he dropped all of his other girls for her, spent money he didn’t have, lost sleep for her and she doesn’t even have the time to text him back. Jhene has good reasoning for being shady towards Sean. She asks him how someone could betray and lie to someone that had been with them through thick and thin. Both of them are doing things that are not healthy for the relationships.

They have an interesting song named ‘Talk Show.’ The song is an interview with Big Sean and Jhene on a popular talk show where they are invited to talk about their relationship. They are the power couple at the time and have to keep the act up. The beginning of the song they both say how much they love each other and how perfect they are. Once Sean expresses his love for Jhene she confesses that they really aren’t so perfect. She calls Sean out in front of everyone for cheating on her. Sean bites back by saying that he hates when she tries to make there business public. Being hypocritical, he tells everyone that she also cheated on him. This song is meant to show that just because celebrity couples look perfect and happy, there are usually some pretty evil things going on behind the scenes.

The final song on the short album named ‘London Bridge’ is about how historical it is going to be when they break up. Through out the album you see them fall in love, get torn apart, and then fall back in love. If one of them were to leave it would be as historical as when the London Bridge fell down in the 19th century. This song is really one that has one of those “happy” endings. This whole album had a constant story line. While listening you felt like you were watching a movie.

Well guess what, Twenty88 decided to make a 14 minute film about the album. The short movie titled “Out Of Love” is everything that you would want to see after listening to this album. Being set in the future you still see that love is that same whether its 2016 or 2116. It features nearly all the songs. There are some R-Rated sex scenes and other things that make this album that much more real. Be warned, listening to this album will bring back memories whether you like it or not.



Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s