Artists in Key Minor Featuring Aminé

This is Artists in Key Minor, where I highlight minority artists with major talent and talk about why you should be adding them to your next playlists. Next person up is west coast rapper, Aminé.

Aminé pronounced Ah-Mean-Eh (you’re welcome), is the son of Eritrean and Ethiopian immigrant parents and he is a rapper who made his way into the rap scene in the year 2014 with his first mixtape, Odyssey to Me. The Portland rapper most notably blew up with his hit song “Caroline,” which reached a peak spot of No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart.

DISCLAIMER: The following videos do contain explicit lyrics and mature themes.

Look/Image & Sound

Aminé is one of those really well-rounded artists that value taking a lead role in all aspects of their sound and image. He utilizes his personality in order to sprinkle his distinctive lyricism on top of tracks for which he creates the beats. Then he takes his unique vision and films it in a way where he’s able to share it with others. He also doesn’t care about presenting himself in a way that just pleases people; he does it for himself. He will go on stage wearing baggy pants or a dress, an oversized T-shirt or eyeshadow. He is truly expressive and skilled in showing his creative strengths in every way he feels like. Aminé can also be cited as pushing, or maybe even creating. the Portland rap scene sound. His sound consists of a heavy beat and crisp vocals. He also makes really good uses of pauses to emphasize just how good the beat is when he brings it back in.

Take a look at his live performance skill, he played at NPR’s TinyDesk in 2017. This video also shows a super smooth and seamless transition from his track “Spice Girl“ into his hit “Caroline.“

OnePointFive

The artist’s most recent release is that of his album OnePointFive, which came out last year on August 15th. This is a follow up to his highly successful album Good for You. Aminé has said it himself that the Instagram star Rickey Thompson and his persona was a big influence on the sound and feel of the album, thus that’s why some of his most iconic lines are littered within all the bangers. With the release of the album came two more of Aminé‘s music videos. Thompson also has had a variety of occupations within the music videos.

The first was a more risqué and sort of classic rap music video with more provocatively dressed women dancing at a car wash for the song “REEL IT IN.“ But honestly, the star of the show is Rickey Thompson‘s performance. I hope that you can also get down to this great track! (Also catch the Easter egg of Ritchie with a T from Injury Reserve wearing the highlighter green wig from the video for their shared track “Campfire“)

His most recent video is that for the track “BLACKJACK“ which was released a month ago. The concept is Aminé as a schoolboy and it, of course, also features his inseparable crew. The ending also highlights some of the artist’s pretty decent acting skills. Check it out!

What Comes Next?

Aminé is currently wrapping up the American portion of his TourPointFive and then heading over to Europe to finish his tour off during the summer. We at CoogRadio look forward to anything the bassy voiced rapper has coming up next. If you want to make sure you don’t miss anything make sure to follow Aminé himself on his social media as well as CoogRadio where we’ll keep you updated with anything you need to know musically.