, ".Rich Brian, formerly known as Rich Chigga, is an 18-year-old rapper from Indonesia who began turning heads in 2016 with his viral single 'Dat $tick', being one of the first Asian rappers to make waves outside his home continent. The announcement of his debut album Amen peaked my interest; I was curious to see what this young guy could offer to the hip-hop culture, being so far removed from its main country and speaking English as a second language, self-taught through the internet. As a result, what he has produced for his first album has impressed me - I've heard albums far less memorable than this one - but it doesn't come without some glaring drawbacks that hold Amen from being the album it could have been. For an artist of his age, the musical ambition is clearly there and much more potent than I expected; however, he doesn't quite reach the same mark as a rapper, although not for a lack of trying.
Producing all but a few of the instrumentals on Amen himself, it's clear Brian has a talent for beat-making. The beats are by far the strongest selling point of the album for me, and almost every track has a memorable, interesting, and exciting musical backdrop to it. From the quiet and great sounding background strings on the title track, the clunky but satisfying keyboard clinks on 'Occupied', the icy synths on 'Introvert', and the beautiful piano line drifting between the bars on 'Flight', Brian showcases a true ear for beats, taking small cues from electronic and indie rock to create spacious, airy beats, all backed with a driving bass to keep heads knocking. The Offset-featuring 'Attention' is one of the few beats with a more contemporary trap beat, usually a style I'm less than partial to, but Brian adds more than enough flavour to make the beat attention-grabbing (no pun intended) and interesting. It's racy, ice cold, and trunk-knocking. Offset actually isn't bad on this beat either, dropping a legible, fun verse with multiple flow-switches throughout, though the lyrical substance of the verse still isn't anything to write home about. I'd assume he tried his absolute hardest for this feature, lest a chart-topping #1-selling musician be out-rapped by an 18-year-old kid. Which brings us to the weak link in the chain, which threatens to take all that instrumental momentum out of the sails; Brian, although he definitely has the fundamentals down as a rapper, struggles for bars of any poignance across most of Amen. There are flashes in the pan - the track 'Little Prince' features two short but sharp verses from Brian, consisting of lyrics such as "Go 'head and dream, take some melatonin, it 'gon help you sleep / point it at the target, shoot your shot, walk out and 1, 2, 3 / no, this ain't a game that we playin' / this is life and boy you better not go waste it" and "Fire in my soul can't hold no composure, I'm goin' off / It's my dream and ain't nobody finna wake me up" - but for these small moments of good writing, there are countless clunkers to make up for it. I'm just scratching the surface, but here are a few of the more laborious lines to get through. From 'Enemies', we have "tell your, bitch to, suck my, DICK". From 'Cold' there's "I just weighed my heart, it's about 30 kilos / I just fucked a lady and she 'bout 30 years old". Already a particularly unpleasant image, Brian decides to divulge further into this topic on the quite unbelievable track 'Kitty', telling the riveting story that takes place between Brian, the "girl of his fucking dreams", and the immediate family of said girl. He spends the first two and a bit minutes describing the events that lead up to having sex with the girl he met at the bar, attempting to set up the "joke" which he delegates a grand total of 26 seconds - her mother walks in, screams loudly, so Brian bails the scene. His pickup driver that he calls to get him, upon asking him who the girl was, turns out to be her brother. The elements of a great story are all here, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The monotone, deadpan delivery strips any kind of tension or excitement from the narrative, and the punchline falls flat on it's face. Bad enough, after already enduring lines like "And the kitty so cute, I wanna keep it as a pet / she so clean, man, that pussy smell like honeydew zest" and "Girl from Hawaii told me that her name was Lilo, ayy / and that pussy bald, look like it just got a chemo, ayy" from the track before this one. I have a love-hate relationship with this album. Although Brian isn't yet hitting the par with his pen and paper, the instrumentals he created for Amen are so good that to most, this might not even matter. The hooks are sticky and catchy, like on 'Trespass', Introvert' and 'Attention', and although flat, Brian's voice is of course an outlier, sounding completely different to that of a typical US rapper, which makes it interesting to listen to (barring fails such as 'Kitty', of course). I'm excited for this guy's future. There's boatloads of potential here, and he already is making some of the best beats I've heard from a new producer in a while. As he grows, I hope he'll find more impactful and emotional topics to rap about, and can use that to write better lyrics, and craft deeper and richer songs that come together to create something truly special. From the sound of Amen, it just might be a possibility in the future, 69/100 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
|