Like any other person who is broke but loves music, I always check music festivals’ lineups to see some of the newest artists. While looking at the lineup for this year’s Voodoo Music + Arts Experience, which included headliners such as Kendrick Lamar and The Killers, I stumbled upon the name Rich Chigga. Interested, I Googled the name and found a completely different image than I expected. What pulled up was a young boy wearing black turtlenecks and pink polos. The look itself was enough to make me interested.
I clicked on the first video which was labeled “Dat $tick.” Here I saw this 5’8″ Indonesian rapper spit out clever catchy lyrics with an incredibly deep voice all while sporting a fanny pack. With my eyes closed, this song seemed like it was made by a surprisingly good Soundcloud rapper, but when I opened them, the images on the screen completely contradicted that. I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. The manager of Rich Chigga, a.k.a. Brian Imanuel, reposted his video “Dat $tick.” The promotion got positive feedback from rappers such as Desiigner, 21 Savage and GoldLink.
Courtesy: Complex
This video launched Imanuel into viral success and earned “Dat $tick” over 70 million views on Youtube. Imanuel’s original dream was to be cinematographer so he directed and edited the music video himself. But, after his music career took off, he turned his focus to rap. He capitalized on his success by creating more singles. Just two years after the release of “Dat $tick” he headlined his own tour called “Come to my Party” which just officially ended on Nov. 22. While he has yet to release an album (plz hurry up!), he has released nine singles.
Brian Imanuel is from Jakarta, Indonesia and was born in 1999. He started having a social media presence on Twitter around the age of 11 and transitioned to Vine when he was 15–years–old. He learned English through Youtube and started learning about rap as well as meme culture from his American friends he met through social media. Unfortunately, learning English without some context can lead to difficulty. In his first song, “Dat $tick,” he drops the N-word, not understanding the full weight and meaning of that word. Even his name Rich Chigga is controversial, as it is a play on the N-word. After seeing the impact from the use of the N-word in his songs, Imanuel has not used it since. He still keeps his name although he has expressed some regret over it. In an interview with The Fader, Imanuel says, “I didn’t really know what I was doing and I definitely did not know people were gonna pop off like this. Now I’m kind of stuck with this. I might change it in the future, I don’t know. I hope I can do it. But as for now, I’m definitely not going to let it be the only thing that defines me.”
Courtesy: Bad Mood
Personally, I am a huge fan of Rich Chigga. He sites Tyler, the Creator and Childish Gambino, also some of my favorite rappers, to be some of his rap inspiration which is obvious in the way he portrays himself. His music videos have an almost awkward sense of humor, but once you start watching you can’t look away. And while there are elements of humor in his videos such as “Who That Be” there are also serious undertones. For example, he raps about police brutality (Dat $tick) as well as breakups (Glow like Dat). His broad range of topics makes him appealing to a large audience. That audience, myself included, has been begging for one full album from the artist. Imanuel has reportedly been working on an album which will hopefully be released sometime early next year. So stayed tuned for one of the hottest new rappers as he makes his album debut.