I robbed some women of their baby making years, dragging them along. They built me up. Look at me now and look at them. If you are creative, I folded you into my artwork. If you were in my artwork, I gave you a job. I gave you a job. [00:00:15] I mastered your life. I gave you a house, food, everything you needed. I protected and provided for you. I did what men are supposed to do. I remember different quotes I said, just really manipulative things to say. Like, no one's gonna love you the way I do. [00:00:31] My God, I'm ashamed of it. And that's what makes me angry when I see my brothers do that. We can't do that to the women that have done so much for us to even exist. And I saw myself for the first time. [00:00:46] All the things I'm saying now, horror. Bit by bit, I stripped myself of my former self. And I swore that the next relationship that I would get in, I will work as hard at love as I worked in my career. [00:01:04] >> Speaker 3: Ooh, singer Jidenna has apologized to all of the black women whose baby making years were robbed due to his manipulative actions. He recently spoke on the What's Underneath Masculinity with Man Enough podcast. [00:01:21] Where he reflected on his toxic behaviors in the past. Nine minutes into the interview. He jumped right into it, didn't he? Nine minutes into the interview, Jidenna's 38, touched on his horrific habit of stringing women along so that he could build him up. [00:01:37] Am I an excellent manipulator? He shared. I didn't understand yet how to relate to women in a way that wasn't exploitive. It wasn't like exploitative, it was. And I would find different ways to make them feel that what they said I was doing was not happening, to make them feel like, he is listening. [00:01:56] Actually, he does want to talk. That's according to the Black Star. That ain't it. Jidenna even claimed to go as far as making himself cry, what? In order to make sure that the women he wanted felt as if he was apologetic for the way he behaved. [00:02:12] As the interview continued, Jidenna noted being ashamed at the way he used to treat black women for his own benefit. He also suggested that his foul behavior causes him to be angry at other black men who do the exact same thing. I'm gonna stop. [00:02:28] There's more, but I'm gonna stop. Jackson, let me bring you in here, man. Listen, I'm torn about this. This seems self serving to me. You know what I'm saying? This seems self serving. And I wanna know what your take is on this. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, if you don't know anything about it, [00:02:44] if you just watch that clip, it seems he's trying. He planned it and he's, all right, maybe I can talk about something, cuz how many people are we talking about, really, that you strung along? That happens in dating, and it's unfortunate, you know what I'm saying? [00:03:00] Are we talking about a major crime? I don't think so. At least not to my knowledge. So, it just seems he's trying to get some attention. But just in general, when it comes to dating tactics like this, it's kind of outside of actually enjoying women or [00:03:18] enjoying dating, it's kind of using people to build up your ego. I kind of treat this person like trash and they stick around. So that must mean that, you know what I'm saying? That's really what's going on in there. But, yeah, it seemed pretty self serving, in my opinion. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I said the same thing about it and [00:03:35] it's not unrelated, right? There's a Democratic elected official in Maine now who thinks we need gun reform at the multiple shooting, mass murder happened in his community. A mass shooting happened in his community. Now he sees and now he feel like he's a failure. [00:03:52] You didn't think that when all those kids got shot in Sandy Hook, you didn't think when Parkland happened. You didn't think when Aurora happened and so many other places, you didn't think that when nine black people were killed in church, you didn't think when that happened in Buffalo. I am tired of people feeling this way when it happens to them. [00:04:09] And this is what I mean. Because according to Atlanta Black Star, Jidenna stated that he received a harsh wake-up call after he and his two girlfriends ended their polyamorous relationship. All them hearts broken, done. That's monogamy? I've had my heart broken, but having multiple at the same time, [00:04:27] I hit rock bottom after that, he said. Like we said, brother, this was all about him worrying and feeling bad, and he needs somebody to feel bad for his heartbreak. So now he see, what about you understood that you were stealing and stripping people when you were fake crying of their childbearing years. [00:04:44] I wanna know, how long did you string people along? Because women, childbearing years are a long time. You sound more than like a massive manipulative. You sound sadistic to me at that point. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, that's a great point. [00:05:00] Childbearing years is like 20 years or so. Probably a little bit more than that. So, I think that there's definitely also a bit of, I'm such a player. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of just like that. I just got so many women sometimes. [00:05:16] It wasn't until I got my heart broke that I realized that. But I don't think he's really that big of a player. I think he's just kind of a goofball and it's gonna flop [LAUGH]. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, you're 100%, and people need to understand that goofball in our community does not mean you're full of jokes. [00:05:32] No, that means you're goofy, a goofball. It means you're corny. You're deceptionist. Nobody's messing with you at all. And this guy does not need to be messed with. Let's be serious here. I think you hit it on the head, brother, about this guy being self servant. [00:05:50] I can't believe that you were going on air and I said this during the break. I really wanna know what his record label thinks about this, especially a record label that has been so loud. And in a great way, let me add, about women's right and [00:06:05] women's right to choose whatever life they wanna live and however they wanna be seen in the world that ownership comes from. Janelle Monet, and I hope she's holding this brother accountable and tell him how toxic this looked and how stupid it is. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, now, especially that it's being amplified [00:06:23] because most people kind of took it like that. From the second the tape starts rolling, it's, why are you even in front of the cameras talking about this at all? Cuz, again, it's not you were a politician and you're apologizing for really dropping the ball on something important. [00:06:38] People don't really need to know about this, but now that they do, you just kind of look like a jackass. >> Speaker 3: Absolutely.