Page 17 - Provoke Mag Vol5

Maybe rapping and hip-hop don’t seem to match Rich Brian at first, but CXSHXNLY had no problem with that when they signed him in 2016.
Most hip-hop fans agree CXSHXNLY made the right decision. Dat $tick was certified gold by the RIAA and received over 90 million views on Rich Brian’s YouTube account. His other songs Seventeen and Who That Be are also wildly popular, and debut album Amen, re- leased this year, peaked at eighteen on Billboard 200. He also concluded a nationwide tour entitled ‘Come to my Party Tour’ on November 21, 2017. Although he is now a major rap talent, Rich Brian had humble beginnings. Born Brian Immanuel in 1999 to a middle-class family in Jakarta, Indonesia, the rapper was self-taught, using YouTube as his main resource. His schooling growing up was spotty at best. In an interview with BigBoyTV, Rich Brian explained that his parents decided school was too far, and he would be homeschooled. Strangely, the school was two minutes away.
Homeschooling ended when Rich Brian was around nine or ten. This odd arrangement left the young rap- per with an unusual amount of free time on his hands, which was spent helping at the family cafe or watching YouTube videos. As a child, he was interested in Rubik’s Cubes, looking up tutorials on how to solve them fast- er and competing in local competitions. These videos were mostly in English as opposed to Rich Brian’s na- tive Indonesian, causing him to master English by the time Dat $tick was released at the age of sixteen. That’s right – he’s actually rapping in his second language! This incredible feat, especially from someone so young, marks him out as a prodigy. Despite his obvious learn- ing ability, Rich Brian has stated he will not be pursuing a college education, preferring to focus on his musical career.
Rich Brian also learned English in part because of his fascination with American rap and hip-hop music.
Macklemore’s Thrift Shop was one of the first Ameri- can rap songs he listened to, and he eventually learned to rap the entire song. Other rappers that inspired him were Young Thug, Childish Gambino, and 2 Chainz, whose songs grew his vocabulary and inspired some of his flows. This passion for specifically American rap music also led him to leave Indonesia and emigrate to America in 2017, where he now lives in Los Angeles.
As something of a newcomer to the rapping scene, Rich Brian is also controversial. Some hip-hop fans still don’t take him quite seriously, and since the star’s YouTube career was built on comic videos, there’s some logic to that. But Rich Brian’s tracks are actually well produced and meaningful. On the topic of his al- bum ‘Amen’, Rich Brian explained that “I say the word ‘Amen’ a lot. I’m a pretty religious person but I’m also very optimistic. But at the same time, my whole thing is you can never be too sure about things because any- thing can happen. And I feel like that’s a big part of why it’s called ‘Amen’.”
This willingness to express himself and be himself at all costs, regardless of the norm, is also what made him into a star. As one of the few prominent Asian hip-hop artists, Rich Brian is an inspiration to countless other young aspiring rappers who don’t quite fit your ste- reotypical image of what a rapper should look like and dress like. His strong individual brand also explains the bizarre and amusing wardrobe choice in Dat $tick. The dorky vibe 21 Savage disparaged is absolutely inten- tional; the entire music video walks the line between serious and deadpan comedy, a theme that has made it stand out ever since. He’s not straight outta Compton, and his bars aren’t really about Glocks and pills. He’s not a strict rapper either, getting his inspiration from Tame Impala, Frank Ocean, and Mac DeMarco. And at the end of the day, he goes back home to a normal house, pink polo on and fanny pack out.
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