How Kanye West Influenced Aminé to Mix Fun and Poignancy:

Kanye West’s influence on hip-hop is undeniable. Before the ‘Ye phase, his early career shook the foundations of the genre by mixing fun and poignancy with a new sound that respected the old-school. The College Dropout’s single ‘All Falls Down’ encapsulates this style perfectly, as West discusses materialism and emotional insecurity over an anthemic and soulful instrumental. Whilst the character of Kanye West has, rightly, come under heavy scrutiny, it cannot be argued that his commitment to deliver ground-breaking albums has been consistent. As a result, his legacy in hip-hop is seen throughout his successors.

This is where we come to Aminé. His ‘sophomore-ish’ album Limbo comes three years after his breakthrough LP ‘Good For You’, alongside his tracks ‘Caroline’ and ‘REDMERCEDES’, which delivered our first experience of the Portland rapper’s fun and poignancy. The latter single’s music video, directed by and starring the rapper, features a race-reversal sketch in which a black-owned auto dealership racially profiles three white men who want to buy a flashy sports car. All over a thumping club beat. It mixes humour with soberness, emphasising subtle but frequent racial prejudices over a materialistic and luxurious topic. Aminé continues this on ONEPOINTFIVE, his mixtape in between albums, where he raps about white girls’ obsession with dreadlocks, accentuating racial micro-aggressions that many black people experience on a daily basis. Again, all over a bumping, 808-heavy beat.

Aminé’s previous two projects each had their own sound and identity throughout. Whilst Good For You was more pop-rap, ONEPOINTFIVE had trap influences. However, Aminé’s latest instalment Limbo captures the exact vibe that Kanye West perfected in his ‘Higher Education’ trilogy: mixing fun and poignancy with a new sound that respects the old-school. The two singles leading up to Limbo – ‘Shimmy’ and ‘Compensating’ – display the bridges that Aminé has built between the generations of his fan base. The former track incorporates an Ol’ Dirty Bastard sample for the older heads, whilst the latter features a fan favourite from the new era in Young Thug. It’s reminiscent of Kanye mixing auto-tune pioneers T-Pain and Lil Wayne on an album that included boom-bap legends DJ Premier and Mos Def.

Usually I find it harmful to compare artists, as each is trying to print their unique stamp on their own bodies of work. However, with Kanye references littered throughout Limbo, it is clear that Aminé is inspired by his predecessor’s success in blending eras. The album’s stand-out song ‘Pressure In My Palms’, which even interpolates Kanye’s ‘We Major’, is the perfect embodiment of what Aminé is trying to achieve on this album. With a new-school beat that reflects its featured guests Slowthai and Vince Staples, Aminé’s verse is filled with pop-culture references. He discusses the bald Britney years, Ashton Kutcher, memes about the cartoon Arthur, Fergie, Jessica Alba, Steve Harvey and the ‘Malice at the Palace’ brawl, all at lightning speed and without missing a beat. His punchlines are great, his flow is smooth and the guests fully understand what is needed from them on the track. Then, out of nowhere, the repeated ‘pressure in my palms’ line switches from an edited male voice to the beautifully-sung vocals of Bree Runway, while the beat transitions from gritty and bassy to soulful and laid-back. The references remain but this time they are poignant, referencing baseball’s first black player Jackie Robinson, as well as comparing the societal reaction between Kanye West embarrassing Taylor Swift at the VMAs and Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. Aminé is consistent with his rapping style, but his mix of fun and poignancy is akin to Kanye West in his prime.

In the first line of the album’s opening track ‘Burden’ – produced by Londoner and Nine8 Collective member Mac Wetha – Aminé slams down the bar ‘When your skin darker, shit gets harder/This a black album, like Shawn Carter’. This bar sums Aminé up to a tee, and it comes within a minute of the album’s start. The delivery, the brutal honesty, the clever wordplay, each as impressive as the last. This time over a smooth, soulful, chopped-vocals hip-hop beat. Importantly, this shows that Aminé is not fearful of his words. He is not scared to make people face up to racial inequality, and lines regarding conscientious topics like this are prevalent throughout the album. We have love ballads with R&B superstar Summer Walker on ‘Easy’, searches for one's heritage on ‘Roots’, maternal admiration on ‘Mama’, paternal anxiety on ‘Fetus’ (which includes a haunting feature from the recently passed Groggs of Injury Reserve), and societal condemnation of inter-racial couples on ‘Becky’. It is so refreshing to see an album full of thought-provoking topics from an artist renowned for feel-good music, exemplifying both Aminé’s range and consistency.

Kanye West’s influence is clear to see in Limbo and, as an early-era Kanye fan, I am glad to see the legacy of his work live on. However, Aminé has wisely chosen to ignore his role model’s most glaring personality trait: the desire for controversy. He does not need to divide music fans. He does not need controversial interviews as marketing strategies. Aminé’s creative output is what makes him unique, as his music videos, song topics and fantastic production are different to anyone else in the industry. He lets his art do the talking for him. Limbo has elevated Aminé to the elite tier of modern rappers and, whilst the old-school lives on through his music, it’s the young man’s time to shine.