Summer came early this year with Kaytaminé’s album release on May 19th, featuring eleven
effortless tracks with collabs from Big Sean, Amaarae, Snoop Dogg, Freddie Gibbs, and Pharrell
Williams. They put their name on the scene earlier this spring with“4eva”, featuring Pharell, and
both have had extensive solo careers before teaming up on this project. You might have seen
Kaytranada’s chaotic Boiler Room set or know all the lyrics to 2017’s “Caroline”, but here’s a
little refresher on this iconic duo.
The duo consists of Haitian-Canadian DJ/producer Kaytraminé and Ethiopian-American rapper
Aminé, who both have separately gained recognition. Famous for his unique electronic music,
DJ and producer Kaytranada draws on a wide variety of musical styles including hip-hop,
Afrobeat, R&B, and soul. He dropped out of high school to pursue DJing full time and support
his family and soon rose to prominence in the early 2010s for his original music and remixes
posted to SoundCloud, using the music engineering software Fruityloops. He credits his father’s
record collection, rap music videos, and dance music sets played overnight on Montreal radio
stations as his early influences. Since then, Kaytranada has had a number of collabs under his
belt, including Syd, Anderson .Paak, Goldlink, and 10% with Kali Uchis, which won the 2021
Grammy for Best Dance Recording. After releasing “4eva” in early April of this year,
Kaytranada performed at Coachella, bringing out Aminé to perform the song.
Aminé grew in popularity with his commercial debut single, “Caroline”, which peaked at
number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart after its release in 2016, and was soon named as
one of the ten members of XXL’s “2017 Freshman Class” alongside rappers like Playboi Carti.
Aminé grew up in Portland, where he listened to both Ethiopian music and also artists his mother
introduced to him, including Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson, Kanye West, and Outkast. He got
an early start to music by helping out at his high school’s radio station and interning at Complex
and Def Jam during the summers. Since then, Aminé has grown a loyal fanbase for his bright and
abstract music, videos, and lyricism.
The two have previously collaborated on numerous songs, including “La Danse”, “YeYe”, “Not
At All”, and Rejjie Snow’s “Egyptian Luvr”. Go do yourself a favor and stream Kaytraminé’s
album for the perfect IV summer day.
