Photo Credit: Nick Innella
Written by: Oliver Heffron
Columbia, Maryland-native Tre' Amani is a throwback MC with a contemporary ear for beats. Over the past few years, he's represented his hometown and built a following independently alongside budding R&B star and longtime friend Brent Faiyaz, making their dreams of starting their own label come to fruition with Amani's Civilized Human Beings hip-hop imprint and Faiyaz's Lost Kids Label fast making waves in the industry.
Amani’s new EP, $Hook, exemplifies his versatile flow, lyrical craft, and effective beat selection, showcasing his ability to flow effortlessly on a variety of sounds, going bar for bar with Meech on the lyrical barrage "Crack$ in the Ceiling," while anchoring the melodic opener with Shina Mack "Heaven$ Or Hell$." Amani holds down the menacing drums and tactile atmosphere of "$Hook." with a viscous flow, while catching a smooth vibe on "Lo$T Kid. (feat. Rodney Hollywood)."
Coming off the release of his EP and his feature on the track "Addictions" from Brent Faiyaz's Wasteland album earlier this summer, Tre' Amani sat down with Nuance to talk about growing up in Columbia and getting into rap, the production of his EP, and what he aims to bring to the rap game:
Growing up, Tre' remembers his mom's excellent taste in music as an early introduction to the art form he grew to love: "My mom got me on music heavy because she's, you know, she always serenaded my crib with The Temptations, Erykah Badu, Sade, Bob Marley…So, at a young age, music always spoke to a motherfucker." He soon fell in love with hip-hop, fascinated with the production and orchestration of Kanye and the raw lyrical talent of MCs like Lil Wayne.
As he got older, Tre' began taking music seriously as an option for himself as he realized it was an opportunity to get his voice heard, something he found difficult to achieve during adolescence:
"I didn't really start taking it seriously until like middle school when I realized I could not play fucking sports, and I also wanted to be heard, and I realized when I rapped, motherfuckers would listen to it. So, that's when I started getting real crafty with it and taking it seriously."
Photo Credit: Nick Innella
Finding his passion for rap during Middle School, Tre' ended up spending more time with those who shared his interest in music, which is where he first linked up with Brent Faiyaz and started rapping under the Civilized Human Beings collective, as Amani explains:
"I've known Brent since 2006. We went to middle school together. Well, me and his older brother were like best friends in sixth grade, and he was in fifth grade, and I didn't really like him at first, but you know, we realized we had a similar interest. So, we just linked off that for real, but I've known Brent my whole life."
Listening to artists like Kid Cudi, Mac Miller, Chip Tha Ripper, The Cool Kids, and MIA, Tre' learned the value of independence and thoughtfulness in gaining a loyal audience. With Faiyaz and Amani's movement putting Columbia on the map in recent years, what Tre' believes is setting their movement apart is their return to the authenticity of that blog-rap era while also modernizing the sound to make it more relevant now:
"I feel like the best era in hip-hop ever was from 2000 to 2010; we had so many good artists and so much good rap, and now, I feel like hip-hop and rap have gotten really watered down and redundant. So, I just feel like my rap is the way rap should be. But also, a little different, because there's always going to be evolutions in this music and rap shit, but I just feel like it sounds different because it hasn't been done in a while."
Working mainly with his longtime producer Ryan "TopSecret" Anderson, who he accredits with being a substantial influence in the creation of his sound, Amani crafted $Hook to be a fast-paced, efficient collection of tracks that beg to be replayed, contrasting the dominant trends of overstuffing projects to increase streams: "I just wanted to keep it up-tempo the whole time. It being a six-seven song project, I didn't want no skips. I want you to hear that shit and be like, 'Let's keep going, keep going, keep going. So I just wanted some up-tempo shit, some hard-hitting shit." Tre's favorite track off the EP, "Seeing Ghost$," displays this synchronicity between MC and producer, as Amani's hard-hitting verses flow effortlessly into the uptempo beat, progressing and growing in tandem over the track's runtime.
Photo Credit: Nick Innella
Collaborating with longtime director/videographer Nick Innella, Tre' Amani has been steadily dropping impressive visuals for his music, enjoying the process of realizing his vision independently with fellow creatives, like on his personal favorite "Lo$t Kid," flying out to shoot the video in LA. Amani explains that the people he works with make the process fun and exciting, as they get to decide the details of everything in the frame:
"My favorite thing about shooting them is my director and videographer Nick Innella, just really easy work with him; we've got good chemistry, he gets me, and I get him. We're there on a mission; this is independent shit. So we're really doing all these ideas ourselves, from wardrobe to settings to plot to the meaning behind the video, we do all this shit ourselves. So big shout out to him and my team."
With more videos and another EP already on the way, Tre' Amani has seen his vision come to light this year. Alongside his longtime friend Brent Faiyaz, Amani explains that $Hook's title is a reference to the effect they plan on having in the music industry by following what separates them from the pack:
"I know there's not a lot of rappers doing what I'm doing right now, and my intentions are taking this shit over, to be honest–like lost kids, me personally; I know Brent, the whole team, we want to really leave a mark out here by not following the norm; from being independent. So it's like, all together, we're gonna have the game shook. You know what I mean?"