When the Songwriters Hall of Fame 2025 class was announced in January, Rodney “Darkchild” Jenkins was named among the inductees. In an interview with Ebony, he shared that he’s “humbled” by the “amazing” honor.
“It’s amazing. I’m humbled. To be mentioned alongside people I look up to—like Michael McDonald in the same year as me—is crazy. It hasn’t fully registered yet. Probably will when I’m actually [at the induction ceremony],” Rodney says. “I’m blessed to have this career, but I never get caught up in just yesterday or today. I keep creating for tomorrow.”
Some of his upcoming ventures include an Afrobeats project and music from his Christian hip-hop label, Aliens Alive, which he’s currently focused on. But writing hits like “The Boy Is Mine” by Brandy and Monica, and Beyoncé‘s “Déjà Vu” is what earned him the Hall of Fame induction.
Some of Rodney’s songs have even gone on to be sampled by other artists, including Toni Braxton‘s “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Burna Boy sampled the track on his 2022 hit “Last Last.”
“I love it, ’cause that’s part of the legacy of it all, right?” Rodney says of his work being sampled. “You had a song that did really well that people admired so much that they’re willing to sample it and put it into a new light.”
“The Bible says there’s nothing new under the sun anyway, right?” he continued. “Taking something that existed and reimagining it in a new way, I love that. I love that it can happen over and over again. That’s what makes music timeless, right? That’s what makes it keep reaching the masses and the next generation, right? Because there’s a generation that didn’t experience Toni Braxton’s ‘He Wasn’t Man Enough.'”
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