The Chief

He’s received plenty of useful co-signs—a spot on Janelle Monae’s fledgling label, a guest appearance in Luke Cage—but Jidenna Mobisson doesn’t miss his shot on his first album. As strikingly confident as it is unpredictable (check the night and day trap twin-pack that is “Helicopters / Beware”), The Chief mines everything from dancehall (“Some Kind of Way”) to Jidenna’s Nigerian ancestry (staff-raising battle-cry “Long Live The Chief”) to carve its unique speaker-toppling space.