Jidenna Theodore Mobission, popularly known as Jidenna, said in a podcast on Thursday that in a toxic phase of his life, he manipulated women and robbed them of their baby-making years.

In a podcast, ‘Manenough’, episode one of ‘What’s Underneath: Masculinity’, the ‘classic man’ crooner opened up about a troubling chapter in his past, acknowledging that he deprived women of their prime years for building families.

The podcast is in partnership with Better Help, a mental health platform that provides online mental health services directly to clients, and they featured the artiste.

Jidenna spilt the beans on his knack for lying and manipulation in the past. The artiste gets real about his days as a top-notch fibber and master manipulator, giving us a peek into his transformation from sly to sincere.

“I know how to tell a good lie you tell 98 per cent of the truth and then two per cent a lie that’s how you become a good liar,” he said.

He continued by saying he found pleasure in lying because he thought it was enjoyable.

“I used to lie for sport just because it was fun,” he said.

The American rapper admitted to a lack of understanding of engaging with women in a healthy, non-exploitative manner and resorted to various strategies to make women believe that he was right.

“I didn’t know how to relate to women in a way that isn’t exploitative,” said Jidenna.

Jidenna would usually make these women say things like “he’s acting with his heart” and “That’s actually sweet.”

The musician said he would usually coerce these women into doing whatever he wants at his own time instead of giving them time to think. He would make statements like “I want to talk about it now; do not walk away from me” instead of saying, “Hey, she needed time to process.”

Jidenna regretted his past statements, like “I mastered your life, I gave you a house food, I did what men are supposed to do.” “No one’s gonna love you the way I did, revealing that he feels ashamed of them.”

The artiste strongly claimed he disliked witnessing men saying similar things to women who have contributed significantly to their lives.

“We can’t do that to the women that have done so much for us,” Jidenna admitted. “I robbed women of their baby-making years.”

Speaking of hitting rock bottom, the artiste said he realised what he did after he was dating two women simultaneously and the relationship ended.

“I hit rock bottom, I didn’t think I deserved love and I saw myself for the first time,” Jidenna explained.

He further revealed after his relationship ended, his journey to sincerity began when he started reading about masculinity, swearing that in his next relationship, he would focus on love as much as he focused on his career.

Jidenna, speaking about his style and masculinity, said the biggest assumption people made about him was that he was put together while he was “a fucking mess.”