Jidenna’s album The Chief is currently in stores, but the project is off to a rough start. The Chief opened at #14 on the Billboard 200 with a Sales Plus Streaming figure of 14,347 but its pure sales figure (8,655) saw the Epic Records artist sit at #24 on the sales-only chart in his first week.
The figure is disappointing for a major label debut but it is also to be expected – without a single in heavy rotation leading up to the project’s release, if The Chief had sold more copies than copies, then it would been a minor miracle.
Nevertheless, the Epic Record signee is soldiering on and has been on a promo run for the project. His last stop was on late night TV, Jidenna was a guest performer at the widely-seen Stephen Colbert show last night and he looked like he had seen better days.
With his ginger hair uncharacteristically ruffled, his cravat loosened and his top button unfastened, the Classic man staggered across the stage as he performed his latest single “Bambi”.
Watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BomOoaVfEs
It’s a look that Jidenna seldom shows the world but the eternally well-manicured artist was only getting into character for the song, you’re not going to catch him dead looking this dishevelled otherwise.
“Bambi” tells the story of a lady that Jidenna doesn’t want to commit to fully but doesn’t want to let off either. He blames his indecision on everything but himself – he’s shy, his grandfather who had several wives etc, the excuses go on. As he pours his heart out to Bambi, Jidenna looks tortured – it’s obvious he has been drinking away the pain.
The song is a hybrid of highlife and trap music with sprinkles of doo wop, a beautiful experiment, much like a lot of The Chief project. Jidenna rounded up his performance of “Bambi” with an acapella with his backup singers joining in.