After Missing The TikTok Wave And Watching His Career Stall, Jidenna Explains Why He Bet On AI And How It Paid Off
The artist, recognized for “Classic Man,” has personal ties to the tech sector, which traces to his father, Oliver Mobisson. During the AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 in Houston on Oct. 29, Jidenna referred to his father as “Nigeria’s Steve Jobs,” but he was underfunded. His father taught at Anambra State University of Science and Technology (Now, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University) and was a part of a group that created West Africa’s first commercially produced PC, CNN reports.
“I didn’t come up as a billionaire trust fund baby because Nigeria was commissioning him, but didn’t necessarily see the full vision at the time for what PCs would become,” Jidenna said during a panel moderated by Senior Vice President of AFROTECH™ and Live Events at Blavity Inc. Simone Ashley Tyler.
Jidenna pursued studies at Stanford University, originally on track to earn an engineering degree, but the music bug led him to obtain a degree in ritualistic arts, per Ebony Magazine.
His interest in technology hasn’t wavered.
“I have always been into tech. So this is not new for me, but I think it’s new for those who may know me as a ‘Classic Man.’ So I’m excited and I think that everybody in this room has way more dreams in their head and it’s probably used about 2 % to 10% of their mind thus far in their careers,” he said.
“AI has the ability, or we have the ability with AI rather, to expand on that percentage,” he continued.
Jidenna has been building out Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) and says he does so every time a new technology or platform emerges. He also trades tech stacks with his friends.
“Let’s say you’re using a music platform like Suno, which allows you to generate music with one prompt if you’re not a producer, like myself … If you don’t know how to create a Jidenna song, If you don’t know how to do that, you can ask ChatGPT or Gemini, ‘Hey, can you look at the Suno formulas and tell me how I would prompt for a Jidenna song,’” he explained to the audience.
“So that’s a basic use, but you get tired, if you keep going and typing every single time, you go to the chat. So you can take that formula or copy and paste what it outputs, not just for a Jidenna song, but what it outputs as the Suno formula, and then customize that as a GPT so that every time you go there, you can just say, ‘I want to make a Jidenna song,’” he continued.
Jidenna refuses to be left out of advances in AI. His conviction is rooted in a troubling time in his career that coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people flocked online, this also gave rise for many to grow their followers on TikTok, though it gave Jidenna a reality check.
“All these TikTok stars are dancing. It was hard for me to compete,” he admitted.
“If you look at my career first five years, it’s like this pandemic for most of us: a little stagnant. But because of TikTok, I was not able to compete in the same way that I could pre-TikTok,” he shared.
“I told myself ‘The next time there is a big technological moment or social media comes out, I will seize it.’ And that was probably 2023, 2024, that move in Gen AI, particularly in film and music, that did it for me,” he continued.
Expect to hear more perspectives across the tech landscape throughout the duration of the conference. It’s not too late to purchase your ticket. Be a part of the conversation.
