1.5, Amine latest effort…
Amine latest effort was dropped at the tail of the summer. Amine released his sophomore album title OnePointFive, which is a joke in itself. From the album, trailer Amine plays as multiple friends in a car trying to figure out if the project is a mixtape, EP, LP, or album. This pokes fun at the artist, that packages projects differently to make better sales. To put it simple EPs/mixtapes are generally a bunch of lossie (random songs artist have recorded) in less than 40 minutes. On the other end, LPs/albums usually have themes or tones set for the whole project.
Now let my give you a brief background of our friendly rapper, Amine. Amine is from Portland, Oregon who attended Benson Polytechnic High School. Amine began rapping after getting cut from the school basketball team. You probably know Amine from his hit single “Caroline”, that blew him into mainstream radio. In my opinion, he blew up because of his fun energy, clever bars, and fun videos. Now if you still have no idea who I’m talking it’s this guy.
This project feels like a mixtape even though its promoted as an album. I say this because the project seems very scattered compared to Amine debut album, Good For You. OnePointFive captures some of the same allure that brought me to Good for You. Generally, the hardest thing about making a sophomore album is finding subject matter for an artist. Most say creating your debut album is the easiest because you have your whole life to make it. Compared to Good for You, Amine doesn’t show his same ability in songwriting. Sonically, this is a more trap-inspired project. To put it simply, it’s more tracks with content about; flexing, money, women, and the star life.
I feel Amine does his best when he has something to rap about. The highlights of OnePointFive are the moments like “DR.WHOEVER”, “CANTU”, and “REEL IT IN.” In “DR.WHOEVER” Amine tackles mental health through a conversational delivery. He names the track “DR.WHOEVER”, letting his audience be his therapist as he vents about the past, fears, and personal coping mechanisms. He encourages people in the black community to stay away from vices as a way to solve problems, but instead to try therapy. In “CANTU” he jokes about fans trying touch his hair. Personally being someone with dreads, people are either fascinated with your hair or see it as an alien. In “REEL IT IN” Amine creates a great summer banger. The hook is just infectious, I can already see it being played at the 80’s Dance. The only problem is that when Amine tries to create more hyped up songs like this, it falls flat. Amine is not bad at making hype music, but I prefer his style in Good For You. Overall I feel more effort was put into Amine first album. This project just doesn’t have the same replayability and energy that made me a fan of Amine. I recommend this album for getting hype but other than that I feel this album will lose it stream in the next weeks.
