Aidonia released his first album since the passing of his son Khalif Lawrence. The dancehall veteran expresses his vulnerability as a father coping with his son’s passing but also delivers a solid body of work that has left fans raving.
The 23-track project Occupied Mind was released in the wee hours of December 1 and paid homage to his son, who died on December 3, 2022, following a three-year diagnosis with cancer.
His parents have publicly grieved the loss of his son, and in a statement to Urban Islandz, the artiste said the song’s title reference to his frame of mind as he coped with the loss of his baby boy.
“Occupied Mind is a compilation of the songs I did recently mostly this year. It’s just something that came about the latter part of last year, and I needed to [make] music and stay occupied both mentally, emotionally, and physically and music was doing that for me hence the name ‘Occupied Mind’,” he said.
The artiste also said that following the release of this project, he intends to take a break to focus on his wife, who is currently in her third trimester and awaiting the birth of their second son.
“With the birth of my child now, I’m gonna take some time off to focus on my family and focus on my child for a couple of months. So I just decided to put everything together and give the people, it’s a project,” he said.
Aidonia also shared that although this project is lengthy, he is not referring to it as an album and said that he’s planning on releasing a full album next year.
“It’s not an album but a project to hold the space weh mi ago take off and focus on mi family and mi personal life fi a minute…we ready again for the early part of next year again to start doing some new music. The official album is gonna come next year and once mi come back from da break deh it will be time fi focus on the album coming definitely next year,” the artiste said.
In the meantime, the album’s executive producer is Banger House Music Group, while Haunted House, Emudio, Darshan, Cashflow Big Project, and Mill Beatz received production credits.
Aidonia’s new album has been getting positive feedback from fans so far with the single “Socrates” among fan favorites.
The album is currently streaming on all digital streaming platforms (DSPs).
