It’s been about a year since Jhené Aiko released her debut album, Souled Out. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of her big milestone, Aiko issues a visual for “Lyin’ King,” which appears on the album.
Co-directed by TOCK and Topshelf Junior, the symbolic video is a rendering of an open letter she shared with The Fader:
“A mysterious, time traveling medicine woman has a prophetic vision of an early civilization in trouble,” she wrote. “The men have neglected the women and deprived them of love. By orders of their chief, the men of the tribe have taken away the women’s hearts and voices.
The women are powerless. The children are suffering. The medicine woman travels for many days to reach the primitive village. Upon her arrival, the medicine woman performs a miracle. She instantly restores the grace of the women of the tribe and gives them their voices back.
The men of this early tribe are not pleased. With the men of the tribe’s attention, the medicine woman and the women of the tribe begin a ceremony in which they tell the story of how they are taking their voices back.
The chief is infuriated. The medicine woman leaves the now capable women to conduct a private ceremony for the chief.The chief is intrigued and frightened. What he thinks will be a sexual experience turns out to be something very different. After the ritual is performed, the medicine woman passes on her apocalyptic prophecy of how the world will end due to the lack of love throughout humanity.
The chief experiences ego death. He sees that it starts with him.”
Watch Jhene Aiko’s “Lyin King” music video below.
