Sailing Soul(s)

Sailing Soul(s) (stylized as .sailing soul(s).) is the debut mixtape by American singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko, released on March 16, 2011. Aiko began working on the mixtape after she gave birth to her daughter, Aiko wrote all the mixtape's songs except from "July" which was written by Micah Powell. Most songs on the mixtape were produced by Fisticuffs, except “July” and “You vs Them” which were produced by Bei Maejor, “Real Now” which was produced by Roosevelt, “Do Better” which was produced by J. Lbs and “Growing Apart” which was produced by Tae Beast. The mixtape featured several guest vocalists, including Miguel, Drake, Gucci Mane, and Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar as well as others.

Critically the album received positive reviews, with reviewers saying that the mixtape was one of the  "freshest", another reviewer said that the mixtape is making "Noise in the R&B spectrum". The concept follows the story of Aiko having a meeting with a label and she was told by people at the label "I love everything but when you come into these meetings you have to sell yourself." After the meeting Jhene came up with the concept "I’m not a slave to anyone; I’m sailing my soul instead of selling it."

Background
In 2002 Jhené made her musical beginning when she featured on several B2K, she featured on tracks five through eight on B2K's B2K: The Remixes - Volume 1, "My Name Is Jhene (Intro)", "He Couldn't Kiss (Album Version)", "Gonna Love You Anyway (Snippet)", and "Stuck Like This (Snippet)". "Santa Baby", a cover she recorded, was featured on B2K's Santa Hooked Me Up are sung by her. On Pandemonium!, she was featured as a guest vocalist on the song "Tease", and her song "Dog" appeared as a bonus track on B2K's "Pandemonium". The full version of "Stuck Like This" can be heard as the final track on The Remixes - Volume 2. Jhené has appeared in numerous music videos including O'Ryan's debut video, "Take It Slow", B2K's debut video Uh Huh and "Why I Love You", P.Y.T.'s Same Ol' Same Ol' (Remix) featuring Lil' Fizz video and Morgan Smith's 2004 video Blow Ya Whistle. Jhené also has songs featured on the soundtracks of "Barbershop", "The Master of Disguise", "You Got Served", "The Proud Family" and "Byou".

She released a video for her single "NO L.O.V.E" which debuted on BET 106 & Park when she was 15 years old. Jhene was set to release her self-titled debut album but the album was never released due to tension at the record label Epic, in which Aiko asked to be released from the label. Aiko then began to focus on school.Later at the age of 20, Aiko became pregnant by American R&B singer O'Ryan and gave birth on 24 November 2008.

Development
After Aiko gave birth to her daughter, six months later she began to work and develop on the mixtape. Aiko stated that she was going through trouble at this period in her life saying "At the time I was going through so much in my life that it was so easy to write the songs. I had just had a baby and I was dealing with baby father issues and I had a boyfriend. The songs were just coming and coming. I just had so much to say, and when I was signed, I never really got a chance to write my own music. I always wanted to do a mixtape and before I got pregnant I was about to get back into it ‘cause I was working with different producers and things like that. Fisticuffs, who produced the majority of sailing soul(s), I’ve known them for a while and worked with them on different projects. So yeah, the concepts were just coming and it only took about nine months to complete".

All the songs on the mixtape were written by Aiko, except “July” which was written by Micah Powell and most of the songs were produced by Fisticuffs, except “July” and “You vs Them” which were produced by Bei Maejor, “Real Now” which was produced by Roosevelt, “Do Better” which was produced by J. Lbs and “Growing Apart” which was produced by Tae Beast. The album's artwork was shot by photographer Jay 3. In 2011, she also began working closely with artists from Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment.