Rich Brian – Amen

Rich Brian – Amen

By: Radha Patel

Brian Immanuel, known as Rich Brian, started out his career as a Viner. Once posting comedic content, the now-artist has risen to the forefront of social media. In 2016, he released Dat $tick, a single under his title, Rich Chigga. The Indonesian teen continued making music, and rose to the charts in 2017 with the release of his song “Glow Like Dat”. In 2018, Rich Brian released his debut album, Amen, coming into the hip-hop community hot.

This album really channeled a diverse set of music; with a good mix of soft and pretty, and hard hitting songs, Amen is a decent album. A lot of the songs on this album are really interesting, and while I am not a huge fan of his rapping, I really do appreciate his artistic ability. Brian Immanuel, in my opinion, is an extremely talented producer, especially being just 18 years old. I really see his talent shine through in Occupied, one of my favorite songs on the album. This song is super dope, and it brings together all the aspects of current hip-hop. “Attention”, his song featuring Offset, was really well produced, too.

With similar sounds, I really liked “Enemies” and “Kitty”; both are songs that I could get down to. In songs like “Flight”, “Cold”, and “Introvert”,  featuring Joji, Rich Brian makes sure to throw a day-time summer vibe into the mix.

This album definitely has its ups but I’m not the biggest fan of songs like “Chaos” and “See Me”. Even being among some of my least favorite songs on the album, every track was still pretty good, and I could definitely see the album grow on me more and more.

I want to take the time to recognize that the transitions between his songs are really well thought out. The order and placement of the songs on the album are spot on and pretty perfect. Everything just feels right, no matter what the song’s general sound is.

Rich Brian did a really good job crafting an album that was diverse yet true to himself as an artist. First impressions mean everything in today’s society, and Rich Brian set a pretty decent tone. I might not always respect him as a rapper, and there are songs that I’m not a big fan of, but I respect his work as a producer. His lyricism is pretty sick, and seeing how far he’s come, from making Vines in his home to producing music and signing to labels like 88rising, is pretty inspiring.

Rating: 8/10

Favorite Tracks: Cold, Occupied, Enemies, Kitty, and Arizona