Walker: When you come back to visit your family, what are your impressions of the area?Īminé: You know, I go back to Portland very frequently. You never, as a minority, you never felt welcome or felt like you belong there. I mean, I lived in a very Black neighborhood, but throughout the years it got very gentrified and things changed. What was your experience like growing up here?Īminé: It was OK. You were born and raised in Portland and went to Benson High. Walker: “Woodlawn” also prominently references your home neighborhood of Woodlawn Park. But it isn’t the main focus of the album. So that was definitely something I wanted to touch on. So, um, seeing him die was tragic, you know, for me and my friends. And for me, he was like a second dad that I saw on TV. You reference his influence mostly on the song “Woodlawn.” Why Kobe?Īminé: Kobe just affected every kind of young Black man in America who played sports. Walker: I think being jolted by a moment is not uncommon in your 20s or 30s, but one catalyst for you on this album seems to have been the death of Kobe Bryant. I thought I wanted to make something that I could play formy kids 10 years from now and listen to it and smile because what I say in a song really happened. That to me is what makes somebody’s legacy really cool and something that would last forever, when you could just be honest. I was inspired by a lot of albums, but one that inspired me a while ago was “4:44” by Jay-Z where I got to hear this veteran and one of the all-time greatest rappers alive be brutally honest in his music. When I started making “Limbo” I though a lot about legacy. I think it takes a lot of guts for an artist to just be honest like this on an album, because you don’t get to hear that that much in 2020 at least from a hip-hop perspective. I’m kind of 26 years old, going through a quarter-life crisis, just becoming an adult, really coming into my own. Walker: I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I think you sound a little lost - maybe existentially - on some of these songs.Īminé: I do feel lost. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. Jerad Walker: I’m here with Adam Aminé Daniel, better known as Aminé, whose new album “Limbo” came out last month via Republic Records. Listen to the interview above or read the full transcript below. The joyful quirkiness is still there, but on the album’s 13 songs (and one skit) it’s tempered with a healthy dose of what the musician refers to as “brutal honesty.” While that turn is certainly a sign of the distressing times we live in, Aminé also hinted at a deeper, existential cause in a recent conversation with opbmusic that also touched on his complicated relationship with Portland, his thoughts on the city’s protest movement, and the early musical influence of spending Sunday mornings with his parents.Īminé will be the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC this Thursday, Sept. On “Limbo,” that’s where he firmly plants his flag, establishing himself as one of the Northwest’s finest musical exports along the way. But it was his ability to deftly mix serious social commentary with irreverent humor and an almost unsinkable buoyancy that hinted at greater staying power. The songs on his debut record were marked by catchy, keys-driven beats and the kind of cutting pop culture references that involuntarily curl the corners of your mouth. Propelled forward by the summertime jam “Caroline,” he existed in a ( mostly yellow) technicolor world. In many ways, he was made for this moment.įour years ago, Aminé experienced a meteoric rise, almost entirely bypassing Portland’s local music scene on the way to mainstream success. COVID-19 has killed nearly 200,000 Americans, civil unrest has gripped his hometown for months, and wildfires are burning largely unchecked throughout much of the West, including the musician’s adopted home in Southern California.īut coming from the Portland-born rapper, it’s entirely plausible. It’s a bold proclamation given the current state of the country.
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