\n\tOn a picturesque morning in late July, the rapper Amin\u00e9 is perched at a cobalt-blue dining table in his airy Hollywood home. As he and three close collaborators fine-tune the artist\u2019s upcoming set lists, one of his most important musical inspirations gazes out at them from a wall flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows: In a house brimming with playful primary colors, the most commanding sight is a grayscale portrait of Amin\u00e9\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe simple image is all the more striking because its source material was hardly hi-res: Amin\u00e9 recalls seeing his mother\u2019s small passport photo for the first time while visiting his grandparents\u2019 house in Ethiopia several years ago; the poster-sized print now framed on his wall is an enlarged rendering of a picture he snapped with his iPhone before leaving the faded original in its place. Its provenance happens to mirror some of the themes animating Amin\u00e9\u2019s most recent album, which draws heavily on the musician\u2019s East African heritage. With evocative art direction, wistful songwriting, and spirited production, 13 Months of Sunshine reflects the distinct complexities of the Portland native\u2019s upbringing as a child of Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t13 Months of Sunshine enters the world during a notably fraught time for the region where Amin\u00e9 and I have shared roots: Six years after Ethiopia\u2019s prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize<\/a> for thawing relations with neighboring Eritrea, the two nations are on the brink of another war<\/a>. Meanwhile, amid ongoing<\/a> political<\/a> violence<\/a> on either side of the historically contentious border, a rise in unfettered hate speech on social media<\/a> has further fractured the countries\u2019 diasporas. The heightened ethnic tensions back home and the ripple effect among Ethiopian and Eritreans around the world weighed on Amin\u00e9 as he worked on the album. \u201cI was like, Is this the right time to do this?\u201d the rapper says. \u201cIt felt so divided for the past, like, five years.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\tFor Amin\u00e9, the salience of recent conflict has opened up a new window into understanding his parents, who moved to the States in the early 1990s and raised their children in a multi-ethnic household. Hearing the pain that the violence causes them \u201cmade me realize, Oh, this is why my dad didn\u2019t teach me to [only] be prideful of me being Amhara or prideful of me being Oromo,\u201d he says. The new record is almost defiantly curious, searching rather than authoritative.\u00a0 And as Amin\u00e9 gears up for the start of a stacked fall tour, the artist seems as invested in learning more about all the places that shaped his family as he is in seeing a laundry list of major cities around the world. He\u2019s lucky, he notes, to be reminded of home anywhere he goes: \u201cBecause what I do for a living as an artist, all the Eritreans, all the Ethiopians, they all be at my shows and it\u2019s all love at all times,\u201d he says. \u201cIn my eyes, I\u2019m doing it for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNine years after the infectious summer hit \u201cCaroline\u201d introduced<\/a> a baby-faced 22-year-old named Adam Daniel to the world by his middle name, 13 Months showcases the eclectic sensibilities of a 30-something who\u2019s matured as both an artist and a son. While his father\u2019s influence is obvious through the interludes he voices on the new album, including on an opening track<\/a> named for Ethiopia\u2019s capital, Amin\u00e9\u2019s mother has had a more subtle impact on her son\u2019s music\u2014one that comes through more clearly in the new record than on any of his previous releases. The rapper credits his mom with expanding his musical horizons when he was young, partly by playing her own wide-ranging selections around the house: Along with expected names such as Michael Jackson and the famed Ethiopian singer-songwriter Aster Aweke were the likes of Keith Urban, John Mayer, and Rascal Flatts. She also curated personalized selections just for him: When Amin\u00e9 requested CDs for Christmas, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even specifically ask for certain artists,\u201d he says. \u201cMy mother would just go and buy [albums] based on the things I\u2019ve bought in the past.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tWith a laugh, the artist confesses that he became way more open to his mom\u2019s non-hip-hop offerings after a middle school crush introduced him to one of the songs he\u2019d eventually interpolate on 13 Months\u2014hellogoodbye\u2019s 2006 synth-pop banger, \u201cHere (In Your Arms)<\/a>.\u201d The resulting song, \u201cCool About It<\/a>,\u201d is at once energetic and vulnerable. It\u2019s the kind of charmingly melodic anthem that begs to be belted alongside friends mid-way through a great party, in part thanks to giddy, layered production from Lido, Buddy Ross, Jim-E Stack, and Pasqu\u00e9. \u201cCool About It\u201d is one of the more pop-inflected 13 Months tracks, while others, like the deviously catchy singles \u201cArc de Triomphe<\/a>\u201d and \u201cVacay<\/a>\u201d come out swinging with hi-octane allusions to U.K. garage<\/a> and house grooves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAmin\u00e9\u2019s first project steeped in the propulsive percussion of dance music, 13 Months still sounds like the summer<\/a>, but it also signals a refreshing artistic confidence\u2014and a willingness to reject the constraints that he\u2019s sometimes felt boxed into as a rapper. \u201cI knew I had so many ill rap songs that I didn\u2019t put on this album,\u201d he says. \u201cIn all the years of me making albums now, I feel like the one thing I\u2019ve learned is to just commit to whatever you\u2019re going for\u2014no matter if it\u2019s rock and roll or whatever the fuck, just commit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t13 Months is clearly a product of that ethos. Though some fans attribute the new sound primarily to the artist\u2019s recent collaboration with Kaytranada, Amin\u00e9 notes that 13 Months has been in the works since well before the world met Kaytramin\u00e9<\/a> (and even before he and the Haitian-Canadian producer connected over Soundcloud back in the early 2010s). In fact, some of Amin\u00e9\u2019s most formative musical memories took hold on Sunday mornings back when he was nowhere near old enough to step into a nightclub on a Saturday night: \u201cThe Habesha music I would hear at church had the tempo of dance music where it is not your average one, two step,\u201d Amin\u00e9 explains, using a colloquial descriptor for Ethiopians and Eritreans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn the Orthodox Christian churches attended by many Ethiopians and Eritreans, the kebero, a conical, double-headed drum is a centerpiece of liturgical music. In some ways, the instrument\u2019s stuttering beats echo the \u201cswing\u201d that Kaytranada tends to nudge him toward in the studio, too\u2014an intentional move away from the tidy confines of an anticipated beat: The kebero reverberates forcefully at polyrhythmic intervals<\/a> when clergy members play it with their bare hands during worship\u2014and elicits frenetic applause, a kind of call-and-response, from the congregation. \u201cI was raised on that kind of rhythm,\u201d Amin\u00e9 notes, adding later that \u201cevery time they hit the kebero, that rhythm and that sound was so influential to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThere are no liturgical chants sampled on 13 Months of Sunshine; for all his occasional raunch<\/a>, Amin\u00e9 says he wasn\u2019t inclined to commit outright blasphemy. But the varied syncopation and intense emotional registers of Orthodox worship music informed his approach to an album that balances weighty introspection with buoyant production and evocative imagery. Amin\u00e9 says he knew early on that he wanted the album\u2019s creative direction to highlight the decor he was surrounded by growing up, and its cover art features visual hallmarks of many Ethiopian Americans\u2019 living rooms: There is, of course, the framed meskel, or cross, just to the left of his head and the medosha, or horsehair fly swatter, to the right. The other two items on the wall hold more poetic significance: The poster on the far left bears the old Ethiopian Tourism Commission slogan<\/a> from which the album borrows its name, a reference to the country\u2019s calendar\u2014and, in particular, to the final month.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEach year, after 12 months of 30 days, comes 5 or 6 days of Pagume, which is often considered a time for forgiveness and blessing. \u201cWhen I saw the meaning of that month, it\u2019s supposed to be a rebirth and a time for growth, that\u2019s what I felt like this album\u2019s contents were for me,\u201d Amin\u00e9 says. Working through some heavy decisions as he stepped into a new chapter of adulthood has been a taxing endeavor, he notes, so \u201cI was like, Oh, this embodies what I need, basically. I wish I had 13 instead of 12 in this moment.\u201d The clock behind him signals that wish on a smaller scale; it has one extra hour marker, with the 13th one most prominent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t13 Months is Amin\u00e9\u2019s most lyrically mature offering to date, a departure from the lighter fare that some fans have come to expect. Midway through the Leon Thomas-assisted opener, \u201cNew Flower!\u201d we hear a recording of Amin\u00e9\u2019s father relaying some of his own childhood memories to his American-born son. (The song\u2019s title is the English translation of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia\u2019s capital city, where Amin\u00e9\u2019s maternal grandparents still live.) Speaking about the Eritrean grandfather for whom Amin\u00e9 is named, his father says: \u201cI used to do gardening \/ With Grandpa Amin\u00e9 \/ He force you to plant \/ And keep it maintenance and everything \/ So after you come from school \/ Then he go to the garden \/ And maintaining it, uh, giving it water, stuff like that \/ This is how I grew up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s a tender recollection, one clearly meant to impress upon his only son the importance of hard work and nurturing the things he loves most\u2014no matter how far he might be from the countries where his family has deeper roots. Part of what makes \u201cNew Flower!\u201d so compelling is that the fruits of both older men\u2019s labor become clear almost immediately after the story. In the next verse, Amin\u00e9 raps candidly about the pressures of making it in the industry: \u201cI am depressed \/ If people don\u2019t like me, then I don\u2019t get a check \/ Which means both my parents are stayin\u2019 in debt \/ and I prefer to be the only one that carries the stress.\u201d It\u2019s an understandable sentiment, certainly for many children of immigrants who\u2019ve seen their parents struggle in a country that seems to grow more hostile by the day. And at the start of \u201cDoing The Best I Can<\/a>,\u201d another message from Amin\u00e9\u2019s father nods to that very idea: \u201cI have to do something for this \/ family I created, you know? \/ I try my best, I tried my best possible effort.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe resplendent title track underscores that theme, too: Right after the deliciously frothy \u201cRaspberry Kisses<\/a>,\u201d \u201c13MOS<\/a>\u201d kicks off with a disarmingly cheery chorus. Amin\u00e9 sings the album name between melodic stylizations of East African ululation, then glides into two light-hearted, dexterous verses riffing on Ethiopian names and cultural staples in a way that feels like a more grown-up version of \u201cBaba<\/a>,\u201d a single from way back in 2017: In the second verse alone, he crowns himself a \u201cskinny leg legend,\u201d laments that Portland makes it \u201chard to meet a Feven,\u201d points out our collective affinity for Hondas and Toyotas, then caps it off with a little nod to eskista<\/a>.\u00a0 When Amin\u00e9 cedes the mic to his father, who opines on the difficulty of adapting to \u201cthe language barrier, the culture barrier,\u201d the entire tenor of the song shifts. In the second half of \u201c13MOS,\u201d Amin\u00e9\u2019s raps take on a contemplative tone as he reckons with what he\u2019s inherited\u2014including the weight of his name. But 13 Months, which ends with a haunting Aster Aweke sample<\/a>, doesn\u2019t slip into the clich\u00e9 of treating the artist\u2019s father more like an idea than a person.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s partly because the rapper didn\u2019t originally intend for his recordings to end up on the album. They\u2019d come from a series of conversations on a father-son trip to the Oregon coast in January, when his father started sharing some life lessons as the two walked along on the beach with their dogs. \u201cI just, like, record my grandparents or my parents now that they\u2019re older. I know these are the kinds of voice notes I want to hear when I get older as well,\u201d Amin\u00e9 says. It wasn\u2019t until he played it for his friend and tour DJ, MadisonLST, that the parallels with his own lyrics became clear. Taken together, the messages lend 13 Months of Sunshine\u2019s vocals an intimacy that delivers on the invitation of its cover (especially the delightfully rebellious one at the end of \u201cVacay,\u201d one of the album\u2019s best tracks).\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThat same feeling is palpable throughout the 13 Months visuals, some of which took Amin\u00e9 back to Ethiopia this spring for the fourth time in his life. If the album interludes convey wisdom from Amin\u00e9\u2019s dad and late grandfather to the 31-year-old, then the artist\u2019s performance in an Addis Ababa skate park<\/a> captures the effervescence of an even younger generation. Meanwhile, a roadtrip visualizer<\/a> filmed all around the city made me so nostalgic I nearly impulse-bought a plane ticket the first time I saw it. Amin\u00e9\u2019s version of Addis Ababa has always been oriented around his family, especially his grandparents. \u201cAs soon as my career took off and I could afford a ticket, I went back. And then I went back again,\u201d he says, citing the prohibitively expensive airfare to Africa as he describes the gaps between his first visit as a teen and subsequent trips. \u201cEvery time I\u2019m there, we\u2019re not talking about me. We\u2019re talking about the drama within the neighborhood, their lives, and catching up with them,\u201d he adds later. \u201cI\u2019m trying to soak up so much of their stories and their lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\tWhen I met up with Amin\u00e9 in Los Angeles earlier this summer, he, Madison, Lido, and Paqu\u00e9 were preparing for the second edition<\/a> of The Best Day Ever Festival, which the rapper started last year in Portland. But a few short months after his trip to Addis Ababa, the city was still top of mind, especially as he chuckled at feedback from fans who\u2019d guessed that he would release an album packed with samples of Ethio-jazz<\/a>classics<\/a>. Making time for his grandparents had still been a core element of his latest visit to Ethiopia, but he experienced the country differently this time\u2014both as an artist and as a diaspora kid who daydreams about spending longer stretches immersed in Addis Ababa\u2019s youth culture. \u201cThat trip completely changed my ideology of Addis as a city, of being just a place where I went to go see family,\u201d Amin\u00e9 says. He credits a lot of his newfound comfort to the people who readily welcomed him into the city\u2019s dynamic creative scene (and gave him a glimpse into its nightlife, too). Whether shooting in the skate park, location-scouting in Mercato, or navigating tech issues with less-than-ideal WiFi setups, the rapper \u201cfelt like I was just in my neighborhood growing up,\u201d he says. \u201cIt felt like I was really home this trip.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a picturesque morning in late July, the rapper Amin\u00e9 is perched at a cobalt-blue dining table in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[68890,156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-91928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-amine","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}