Aminé is a rapper, artist and director from Portland who is defying everybody’s expectations. His real name is Adam Daniel, but he prefers to go by his middle name.
He descends from a strong Ethiopian heritage, and you can feel it in his music. Aminé began recording in high school and sharpened his skills until his Soundcloud release of a project in 2015 titled “Calling Brio” while he was a student at Portland State University. He has had a passion for music throughout his life. These songs are the culmination of that passion, merging visual lyricism, catchy bars and exceptional production techniques. “Calling Brio” garnered over one million plays on Soundcloud.
Aminé always aims to please his listeners. He has said that he grew up listening to African music and Bob Marley with his parents, but he got a taste of everything throughout his childhood. He desires to demonstrate this diversity in his own music pieces.
His 2016 single “Caroline” has taken off and continues to be a hit because of its unique sounds. The song has over 12 million Spotify streams, over 12 million Soundcloud plays and over 17 million YouTube/VEVO views. But it doesn’t stop there. “Caroline” ranked number one on Spotify’s Global Viral Top 50, number one on the U.S. Viral Top 50 and number one on the Canada Viral Top 50. Can anybody top him? After Aminé’s single exploded, he signed a deal with Republic Records.
The video for “Caroline” was self-directed in Aminé’s hometown of Portland and features the rapper and his friends driving around town and hanging out at spots like a burger joint, a parking lot and a homey living room.
These places pretty much sum up the classic summer. He has said that the name Caroline does not reference any one girl in particular, but instead represents all of the girls that he has been with and put effort into relationships with throughout his life. The comments under the single on iTunes are littered with hundreds of requests for more music from the rapper. The public cannot get enough.
Fun fact about Aminé? He is absolutely obsessed with bananas. If you watch the music video for “Caroline” you can see bananas covering the area behind the backseat. Eventually the rapper starts eating the bananas, demonstrating where his true love lies. Anybody down for a trip to the grocery store to buy a few bundles of bananas?
Although Aminé’s career is blowing up as we speak, he still seems like a down-to-earth and all-around funny guy. Follow him on Twitter (@heyamine) to entertain yourself with tidbits of gold such as “vermont airport security think my beats pill is an unidentified object” or the laughter inducing “my uber driver pulled out a ukulele and said ‘lets jam’ like he don’t gotta keep two hands on the wheel.”
Anybody wants to start a petition to get Aminé at Springfair next semester?
