By Alexander Eubanks
In his debut album, Rich Brian pulled through with a well-crafted and at times introspective album.
Brian Imanuel has come a long way in his music career in a short time, but his lack of experience occasionally shows through in his debut album, “Amen.”
Imanuel began his music career in 2016 after a period of making YouTube videos and Vines. He originally went by the stage name Rich Chigga and began receiving success off the viral hit track, “Dat $tick.”
Since then, Imanuel has developed rapidly and changed his stage name to the less controversial Rich Brian, but his success hasn’t dipped in preparation for his anticipated debut album
The album starts off with the title track “Amen.” The track has an infectious bassline and he sounds great riding the beat.
The next two tracks are also excellently constructed with “Occupied” standing out as a phenomenal track. Imanuel comes through with some of his more interesting bars on the track, dropped over an interesting and quirky electronic beat.
“Introvert,” a collaborative track with fellow YouTube personality Filthy Frank now known as Joji, is a quality track. I was blown away by the fact that Joji could sing and it shows on the hook.
“Glow Like Dat,” a single for the album, is another great track and Imanuel has one of his best lines, “Being on my Mac Demarco shit / Break my heart and smoke a cig,” and the beat shines through.
“Trespass” is another standout track, with Imanuel switching it up and talking about not wanting to deal with people who use him for his fame.
The three-track run of “See Me,” “Flight” and “Enemies” ushers in a lull as Imanuel mellows out, with “Enemies” being the only track of the three that was memorable.
He snaps out of the subdued interlude with “Kitty,” which is one of the funniest damn songs I’ve ever heard.
Like a smash-hit crossover between J.Cole’s “Wet Dreamz” and “The Hangover,” Imanuel details the first time he had sex.
In “Kitty,” the underaged rapper details going out to a bar with a few friends, but unfortunately he forgot his fake and couldn’t get anything, but still manages to go home with a girl – who just so happens to be one of his friends’ sister.
The closing of the album is a low point as two of the last three tracks feature a very generic pop hook and a knock off Chris Brown.
The outlier of the three is “Chaos,” my favorite of the singles he put out. When paired with Imanuel’s middling performance on “Little Prince,” the final three tracks are passable at best.
“Amen” sets a solid foundation for Imanuel to continue his career, and will serve as a springboard to continue capitalizing on his fame.
I only see Imanuel improving from here on out – his production and rapping skills can only become better with time.
Header photo courtesy of 88rising
