Singer Jhené Aiko and rapper Big Sean are causing lots of chatter with their partnership as musical duo Twenty88, as much for the music as their chemistry and buzz about whether they are more than just musical collaborators.
Their recent appearance on “The Late Late Show” kept the talk going thanks to a backstage photo that served as a meme generator about people who claim to be just friends. The image was topped off by their touchy-feely performance in which Sean at one point gets down on one knee aka into proposal position and the two finish with a very warm embrace.
Part of the talk is driven by debate over whether or not Aiko is married to producer Dot Da Genius, who recently removed a mid-March post from Instagram, showing him putting a ring on a white slip-wearing Aiko, and captioned with birthday wishes to “my gorgeous wife.” Adding evidence she is no longer or perhaps never actually was married, in an interview with Flaunt magazine in early April, both Aiko and Sean described themselves as single.
The other side of the back and forth is generated by people who argue their relationship is a publicity stunt, created to bump up sales, and the two have fed into that argument by playing coy, saying they’re both single, but then behaving in ways that seem overly cozy for a working couple (make note of how Aiko tagged an image of her and Sean below).
Whatever they are, their music together is solid, and one could argue (see Lemonade for details!) that in today’s reality driven pop culture, performers who don’t have a strategy for ratcheting up their buzz through rumor and innuendo are probably not maximizing their efforts to have their music heard.
