My name is Jidenna, which means 'to hold or embrace the father' in Igbo. It was my father who gave me this name and who taught me countless parables, proverbs, and principles that made me the man I am today.

I'm forever in debt to Nickelodeon. It made me who I am today.

I am, always have been, and always will be proud of my Nigerian heritage.

I am in agreement with everything my father taught me and nothing my mother taught me.

Every single place that's brushed upon me has made me the artist that I am - from Nigerian Highlife music and the vocal melodies that I grew up on when I would be sitting with my father and his fellow chiefs, to the funk and freeness of the Bay Area groove, to L.A.'s smooth G-funk legacy, Brooklyn's lyricism, and now Atlanta's trap history.

The older I get, the more I embrace who I am.