Hey, it's Aminé. Let's talk relationships.

And I don't mean like, dating life, or married life and all that. I mean, let's talk about the people who mean the most to you. How to keep them close, and how to maintain your relationships no matter what life throws at you.

I think a lot of times we can get kind of trapped feeling like,

we're too busy for other people? And what's sad is that this often includes the people we love.

But my advice for that is to shift your Mindset, and to not see relationships as a burden, but an investment. A necessity.

We don't have all the time in the world obviously, and managing our time and schedules is always gonna be hard. But if you don't find the time to prioritize your friendships and your connections with people around you, then what do you have in the end?

Who will you have?

And, you should always try your best to put yourself in other people's shoes too. Remember to think about what they might be going through.

Maybe you forgot to text someone back, or you forgot to call them at the time you said you were gonna call them. And you could have a legit reason as to why you didn't. It might not be a big deal to you. But to that other person? That could really hurt, even if you didn’t mean to hurt them.

So to me, the key to maintaining relationships is

being considerate and generous with your time.

And I really believe that the most generous people in the world are the happiest.

Listen to this for tips on caring about the people around you.

Maintaining Relationships

What up. Aminé here.

I know we spend a lot of time in front of our screens, but it's not always the best for us, mentally. And way too many people get caught up in the drama online. Just too many people.

You know, back in the day when Michael Jackson was around, you couldn't DM him mean comments. You couldn't disrespect him on Twitter. 'Cause,

he was too far out of reach.

But nowadays, people say anything they want, to whoever they want, any time they want.

And no matter how many good comments you get, no matter how many likes or retweets, you always notice the bad, right? A hundred great comments but, one bad comment? That shit stays in your head. It messes with you.

But only if you let it.

So I'ma drop my top tip reasons for staying off socials, or

at least some advice on how to unplug every now and then.

Tip number one — and this is something I realized more after talking to my friend Syd: you can't control what other people say, so you might as well not care.

Honestly, one of the only ways to deal with nasty comments online is to just ignore them. Don't even read them. Don't give any trolls your precious time.

Tip number two: get some fresh air.

Put your phone down, go outside, and take a walk. Actively move your body around, to get more endorphins and shit.

Moving around makes you happier. It doesn't have to be sunny outside either. Go out in a rain coat, or whatever the fuck you want. Just get some fresh air.

Tip number three: try to have a set screen time every day.

Either figuring out what hours you want to be on socials, or the hours you won't be on socials. Otherwise, we

all end up waking up in the morning and checking Instagram and Twitter first thing. And then we go to bed doing all that shit again.

So yeah, there ain't nothing wrong with being on social media but, we do need to put our phones down every once in a while. And step away from our screens.

We need to give ourselves time to reset and create a healthier Mindset.

Listen to this when you need a break from your screens.

Staying off Socials

Yo this is Aminé, and this is my Mindset booster to help you get movin' today.

The first step to hustling is believing in yourself. I know that sounds cheesy, but you gotta know how to do this. Because not everyone around you is gonna believe in you.

This can be the hardest thing. But if you stick up for yourself,

then no matter what people say, it won't stop you.

Second, if you're passionate about something, make sure you're always working towards it.

This doesn't mean that you have to be physically working for it all the time. Even if you're not working on it, at least think about that passion, and that goal you have. To me, hustle is obsession.

And third, this might stress you out a bit but, you gotta remember that there's always other people out there who want your dream. So stay hungry for opportunities,

and always be more grateful for them than you are greedy. Treat every opportunity like it could be your last.

And one thing that really helps me is something I saw in TikTok, where you make a rule for yourself. That if a task takes 60 seconds or less to do, you do it. Because you can just get it out the way and you don't have to think about it later.

Take out that trash, run that errand, and get all those smaller things out of the way.

But also remember not to overwork yourself. People think

hustling is working 24/7 and not having fun. That ain't it.

Hustling is just being aware of what you need to do and when you need to do it.

So go get some work done today.

You got this.

Listen to this if you got dreams to fulfill.

You Gotta Hustle

Hey, this is Aminé, and I'm here to remind you that you gotta take care of yourself.

There's a whole lot of people in this world and everybody's living for something.

But at the end of the day — you gotta live for you.

We all go through stuff physically and mentally. Maybe you're feeling stressed about

some stuff that's happening at home. Or some drama at work. It could be school. It could even be just you having a hard time with yourself and your own personal health.

What I try to do to take care of myself is working out, going on walks. I also call my parents a lot. I FaceTime with them whenever I need an upper. I definitely call up on my friends too. Checking in on the people I care about, at least once a week, is really important to me.

Not only for them, but for me.

If you're feeling stressed out and you need to relax, my recommendation is to light a candle. That's kind of what helps me calm down and what helps me kind of find my own me-time.

My favorite scent probably has to be mimosa.

This is just some of the stuff that helps me. And you need to find the things that help you.

Even if it's just being grateful for the small things in life.

You know, having a roof over your head. A good meal. A, a good smoothie. A sunny day. A pleasant conversation.

Do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself.

Listen to this when life gets a little too stressful.

Take Care of Yourself

What up, what up, what up — it's Aminé and I'm really happy to be here with you guys. And it means a lot that in the midst of all that's going on in the world, you're here with me listening to Mindset.

So if you didn't know already, Aminé isn't just my rap name. It's also my middle name. I was born Adam Aminé Daniel.

And music is my life, but I really love

film… TV… I really like candles? I love candles for some reason, I don't know why. I'm not that controversial, I guess.

But yeah, there's a lot more to me than the music that I make.

And I think everyone can relate to this, right? Like, it's great when people notice you for certain passions you have, but aren't there times when you wish that people could see another side of you? Like, a deeper part of who you are.

Some of my fans get a little frustrated that I don't post a lot on socials. Or at least as much as other artists. And honestly, being on social media too much? Messes with my head. I do know how to handle it when I need to but, for my mental health I try to give myself enough time away.

I still really love connecting with people

though, especially my fans and my audience. But I'm always searching for ways to make those connections feel… honest.

And that's why I'm here doing Mindset. I'm kinda doing this for you guys to just be able to hear my voice and, you know, take a walk with your dog, do your dishes at the crib, do some laundry, and listen to my sexy ass voice.

And on top of having a good time, I also want us to be doing

good for the world. So a portion of the proceeds from my Mindset will be going directly to a group that I keep close to my heart, the International Rescue Committee.

They help fight against some of the worst humanitarian issues around the world, including one that hits close to home for my family and my peers: the turmoil going on in Ethiopia's Tigray region. You can learn more about what's going on in Tigray and how the IRC is helping on the ground by visiting rescue.org. That's rescue dot o-r-g.

Alright, I'm ready to start this.

We are in for a wild ride. We're going to cry together. We're going to laugh together. And just, you know, I don't know, maybe we won't cry.

But really though, if there's one thing you'll walk away with from this Mindset, it's that wherever we are in the world and no matter how bad life gets, we can still choose to do good for each other.

And we can still choose to do good as human beings.

So y'all ready?

Nah like, like are y'all ready?

Like are you really ready?

This is Aminé, and welcome to my Mindset.

Meet Aminé

[This episode contains adult language.]

Aight, this is Episode One. We're going to talk about Home.

As an artist, I always want to make sure people know where I'm from. You know, everybody has their own roots, and I hold on to mine.

Very tight.

I was born and raised in Northeast Portland, in this neighborhood called Woodlawn. And I feel like when people think of Portland, they always think of like… white hipsters. You know, 'cause of T.V. shows like Portlandia or all those people who say "Keep Portland weird." I mean no dig at white hipsters but — I'm here to bash that stereotype.

Northeast Portland at least, had a very prominent black neighborhood. So

growing up in Woodlawn, I was surrounded by black people. But all the time, whenever I was out of the city, people would be like, "Oh, you're from Portland? There's black people there?"

And I'm like, "Yeah! We're here. We're just underrepresented." And there aren't that many big names from Portland either. So I always want people to know where I'm from, and the place I represent.

My family? You know I love them. We're definitely close, and I'm really close with my parents. They immigrated to Portland from Ethiopia. And growing up, I just remember seeing them work super hard.

They hustled like crazy. Long hours, long nights, just trying their best to figure things out for our family. And since my parents were always workin', my grandparents ended up coming over from

Ethiopia to help take care of me.

Someone who had a huge influence on me growing up was my grandfather. And he used to always call me by this name, "Fasika". It's just this Amharic nickname that he gave to me that he really loved. So anytime I hear "Fasika," I get really nostalgic.

But you guys don't get to

call me that. Only my grandpa.

My grandfather is a very, very, very hardworking man. He's about 86, 87? I'm not really sure 'cause he looks so damn young.

He wakes up at like six in the morning for a walk and a jog, a… a walk-jog. It's, it's not very fast, and it's not very slow.

And he always makes sure he washes his face every morning with cold water. I don't

know why, but he tells me to do it. And I think I should 'cause he looks super young and I want to look like him when I get older.

I have a little sister. She is five years younger than me. And growing up, we were not close but now we are like the best of friends. And… yeah, we fought a lot growing up. She would throw remotes at my head

and, it was a very traumatic time in my life but, I don't blame her for it because I was an asshole.

But now that we're older, you know, more mature, my sister has become someone I really trust. And I don't know what it is, but I feel like younger siblings always try to act like the older one; giving advice and trying to look out for you and all that. But I know my sister will always be 120 percent with me. About everything.

I feel like she's the only person who will give it to me

straight. A lot of people will be too nervous or a lot of people don't know how to give it to you more straight than your own family. I feel like family will always tell you the truth and will always want what's best for you.

I'm still in Portland at least once a month. It's been harder with COVID and everything but… I just truly need to see my family to stay sane. And most of my homies are there too so, that gives me a great excuse to go.

If you've seen my music videos, then you'll see at least two of my friends in almost all of them: Jon and Yos.

I met Yos in high

school, when we were about 15. And I think he was known in high school for just being the more talkative one, the more friendly one, the guy who kind of everyone knew as just a good homie. So, I really liked him as a person, you know I felt like I could trust him since, since the beginning.

So, since that moment, you know him and me have been very, very close and he introduced me to his good friend, Jonathan. And me, Jonathan, and Yos had just become close. We've, you know, traveled the whole world together.

Jon is like,

literally one of the most funniest people I know. And he knows how to light up a room if it's dull. So that's literally one of his biggest talents and a talent most people don't have so, you know, Jon’s a star and, and Yosief is out here saving lives. He's a nurse. I have some really good friends. And, yeah.

(Yos): "My name is Yosief. I go by Yos, to my friends. Me and Adam went to high school

together. So, man, it's been so long. Freshman orientation probably? Fourteen, fifteen years old?"

(Jon): "And I'm Jonathan. I met Adam through Yosief. Me and Yos have known each other since I moved to Portland from San Jose, California. He was the first person I met and, him and Adam became best friends like in high school. So it was just kinda like a little triangle thing."

(Yos): "Hey Jon, do you, do you remember how you first, your first impression of

Adam?"

(Jon): "I don't remember my first impression, but what I did take away probably when you first like, told me about him was like, 'Oh, it’s just another kid, just like us' type shit. Like, he's normal. Like…"

(Yos): "Not he's normal…"

(Jon): "No for real, because there's, there's weirdos bro. Like there's people like, you know, you know, your friend introduces you to a friend? And then they're like, 'Oh yeah, he kinda weirdo…' like, you feel me?"

(Yos): "Oh my God…"

(Jon): "Like, I swear to God, I swear to God. You know what I'm talking about. You know there's like friends, there's like friends of friends that you like,

yeah I don't really…"

(Yos): "You just don't vibe, you just don't really vibe…"

(Jon): "Yeah I don't really mess with him, you feel me?"

(Yos): "Yeah, yeah, you just don't vibe with… yeah, yeah, yeah…"

(Jon): "You know exactly what I'm talkin' about."

(Yos): "I see what you're saying…"

(Jon): "Yeah. So I was just like, that, that was a very, that was a very big possibility."

(Yos): "No, absolutely. It's yeah, yeah…"

(Jon): "Oh nah, but like, what I mean by normal was like, oh yeah, just like a… you feel me? Just like a, a… it was regular. Same interests, similar, like, tastes and stuff. Like it was just…"

(Yos): "Absolutely."

(Jon): "… yeah it was just natural. Like, I wouldn't be afraid to kick it with him and not you, you know what I mean?"

(Yos):

"Y'all do it all the time! What you mean? Of course you're not..."

(Jon): "No now, I'm talking about now. But then I'm saying like, if it was… you know what I'm saying? If it was like back then, you feel me? Now, look, I don't, to be honest..."

(Yos): "Y'all be around the world without me! I be upset!"

(Jon): "We be travelin'!"

(Yos): "Shady! Ya'll are shady..."

(Jon): "But…


(Yos): "I think one of the reasons why we stayed so close is because, Adam definitely kept us around. You

know? I think something he does that like, something he doesn't have to do, is he keeps us involved in this process.

So like, whether it comes to like, you know you always see us in music videos, and he always asks us opinions on certain songs, and this and that, and treatments and whatnot.

So he always keeps us, like, involved in the process. And I think, obviously he wants to stay genuine to himself, and staying genuine and real to yourself is making sure you keep the same people around. You know?

Obviously, if you have friends from this acquired fame, is it like true, genuine friends? So, you know we've been friends with

Adam when he was poor and rich. So, I think it, you know, it's like a full circle moment."

(Jon): "I think we like, share the same values? For the most, you know for the most part? We're not like, gonna let like outside kinda like noise, you know distract you from like, from the main goal. And that's like, making sure you know you can, be there for your family. You know, you have like same family values.

I just think we're all like on the same page, you know, for the, for the most part? Like in the big picture, we're

all like on the same page. We're not gonna be fake like, or like just be like 'yes men' toward things?

He asks us questions about everything. It's like, you don't have to do that but, it's like it's what you do with your friends. You're like, these are the things, same things we were doing before any music was involved or there was any kind of like, anything else going on. So it was just like, why stop that?

You know what I'm saying? It's just natural. It's just, you're talking with your friends. You're arguing with your friends. It's just the same."

(Yos): "Something that's always stuck with me

like, over the years about Adam is… Adam is really like, selfless. And like, so much time and money spent on his friends and his family.

And you know, whether it be like taking us around the world, or like, you know, fancy dinners that we wouldn't experience if he wasn't there.

And… it will be definitely tough to accept. Sometimes he will get us something that's really expensive, I'm like, 'Uh, I don't know bro like, we can't, we can't accept this. This is too much, this is, this is OD.'

But he's like, always insisting like, 'No it's fine,' like, 'take it' and whatnot, you know?

Doesn't ask for anything in return. And I don't think he, that he even expects anything in return. I think he just expects like just, a genuine friendship and you know, just, being… being real and being his friends, you know?

And I think, I think the reason he does these things is, obviously he cares for us but, what's the point having nice things if you can't share 'em with people around you? You know and you can't really just share that joy?"

(Jon): "One funny thing about Adam is, whether we're on tour, or just

travelin' — anywhere — he has to wake up early in the morning to get breakfast. His thing is always, 'Let's find a fire breakfast spot.'"

(Yos): (Laughs)


(Jon): "Like if we're, if we're on tour? Okay like, we're on tour okay and like, he could do like… whatever. He can, you know what I'm saying? He's doing back to back shows, you know we're up all night, some nights we're drinkin', or whatever. You know what I mean? We can, we… we doin' our thing.

But every morning? He won't sleep in. And it's, it's low key…"

(Yos): "He loves

breakfast for what…"

(Jon): "… it's, it's, it's, it's weird… it's, it's, it's, it's hella weird. 'Cause I'm like, 'Ay like, you don't sleep in? You don't do nothing?'

He's like, 'No. We're, we're, we're here. We're in this city, we're in this country. We gotta go. We gotta like, be, you know? We gotta enjoy it. We gotta do this.'"

(Yos): "That sounds, that sounds on brand yeah…"

(Jon): "And I'm just like, 'Damn like, alright like I get it. Like yeah, I've never been here either but like, yeah! Like he wants to go out to like, 'Let's find a fire breakfast spot and go eat.' I'm just like, 'Ay, the fire breakfast spot.' Everytime."

(Yos): "'Cause I've heard him

say that, those words exactly!"

(Both): "Let's find a fire breakfast spot!"

(Jon): "I'll be like, 'Man, what the fuck?'

So that's probably my one thing with, with Adam that people probably don't know about? Or I don't know if they do, but shit they do now. So if we ever in your town or city, fans? Just make sure you — you'll see him at a fire breakfast spot. Just lay it out there."

(Yos): "Yeah, go to your most popular breakfast spot in the morning. He gon' be there."

(Jon): "Go to your fire breakfast spot at 8:00 a.m. He gon' be right there…" 

(Yos): "That's your free meet and greet right there…"

One of the best things about growing up in Portland for us was, really just being able to go to the beach an hour from the city, or go to the forest an hour from the city, or go to the snow, like an hour from the city as well.

We're kind of in a very, very, very beautiful place. And, you know growing up we took it for granted, but now we're older and, I

really woke up and, and realized how blessed I was to grow up in such a beautiful place.

And… one of our favorite hangout spots growing up was, this place called Sauvie Island. And Sauvie Island was maybe 30 minutes outside of the city? So not very far, but it felt like you were on an island somewhere, a bit more beachy and just away from everything.

And it felt like a place that we would, you know on senior skip day, we would go to Sauvie Island. And that was the place that,

you know a lot of us in high school, and even in college went to just to escape and feel like we had a mini-vacation, you know? And we would drink a lot over there and, you know do some irresponsible things.

Growing up, you know Woodlawn used to be the side of town that a lot of white folks didn't really want to come to. But now,

it's been kind of gentrified like crazy.

I wish that I could stop it somehow… like with my influence or whatever this rap career has brung me. But I'm still just one person.

Gentrification is just this slow burning devil. It kind of feels like you can't stop it, it just… it happens so slowly and it's kind of invisible. So, I wish I could just press one button of privilege and stop it, but, you know…

I can't. And I wish I could. I really wish I could.

And, the best thing I, I feel like I could do for people in my city is represent where I'm from to the fullest extent, and find as much success in this music industry and, and just in my career in general, and be able to come back and show kids that you could really be something — no matter where you're from.

This episode is called "Home". And to me, home means a place where my family lives, a place where my friends live, and a place of familiarity. A place where I feel like I'm safe, a place where I feel like I'm comfortable, and a place that has raised me.

That's my definition of what home is. But I also want you to think about what home means for you. We all come from somewhere. We all have our roots, and we all

have our backgrounds.

Whether you absolutely hate where you're from, or you embrace it fully, I just want you to know that wherever you're from — it has value.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, if we can learn to accept everybody for who they are, and their personal experiences, and what they've been through, and where they come from, then… this world? Will be so much better.

It'll feel more like home.

For all of us.

This is my Mindset.

Home

[This episode covers depression, adult content, and language.]

Y'all ready for me to be droppin' some secrets? This is Episode Two.

This is hard for me to admit but… I'm sensitive.

And I'm hella protective of what I decide to share with people.

I think a big

reason for this is because of something that happened to me back in high school.

Growing up, I always felt like an outcast in school. I mean, a lot of us do, right? There's so much you go through in those early years to just, try and figure out who you are.

And, I wouldn't say I was depressed necessarily because, I didn't know what depression was back then. But it was hard for me to feel like I had something to live for.

Like in my group of friends, I knew I wasn't the funniest. And I knew I wasn't the

best looking. And a lot of the times, I just felt like I didn't fit in.

And man, I used to work at Hollister? And like, the place was poppin' back in the day but, they made me wear jeans with flip flops… I'll really never forgive them for that. I used to smell so fuckin' bad walking out of that place every day too.

So like yeah, there was just a lot of moments in my life where I felt so out of place.

And a huge moment that I'll never forget, when I was around like 15 or 16 —

I tried out for my high school basketball team. My mom would wake up at like 5:00 a.m. just so she could drive me to a 6:00 a.m. practice. And I trained really, really hard for that. I thought basketball was gonna be my whole life.

And you know those scenes in like movies where the coach puts the list on the wall, and all the kids run up to go check it?

Crowding around to see who made it? Varsity or junior varsity or whatever it was — it was exactly like that.

But there was this kid who was like the known bully at the school, right. And he told me that my name was on the list. So I, of course like, you know me, I had been working my ass off. I was… hyped!

So I ran up to that wall to see if it was really there.

And… it wasn't.

And that bully was right next to me when I realized it. And he just started laughing at me.

That was a really low moment for me.

I didn't know what to do. I probably like, tried to laugh it off, you know? Act like it didn't bother me? But I went home that day and… I cried.

I was absolutely devastated.

I mean fuck the

sports side of things. This wasn't just about not making the team, I was depressed because basketball was the one thing in my life that gave me a reason to wake up in the morning. The one thing that kept me going and helped me feel at least a little confident in myself.

So not seeing my name on that list… was heartbreaking.

And I know to a lot of people, this might not be that big of a deal, you know? "Brush it off, you're just

16. It's not the end of the world," or whatever, right?

But as a kid, that moment had a huge impact on me. Mentally, emotionally… I really felt like I was stripped of the one thing that gave me purpose in my life.

But anyways, going back to this bully — this guy didn't just pick on me in school, he made fun of everyone. He was just one of those kids that was just so childish, and didn't understand when he was hurting people's feelings.

Like this one time,

I wore this brown jacket to school that my dad had just bought me — on sale. It was, it was really fly and I think I still have it at my parents' house to this day. Really ahead of its time for 2010 I believe.

I walked into school, with this brand new, patent leather, Nike, brown jacket. And this n-gga walked up to me and said I looked like a pile of shit.

The whole fucking day.

And other kids said I looked like a pile of

shit. So, I just took that jacket off. It was too much, man. It was too much.

But yeah, don't worry. You don't need to hate this bully. You don't need to hate anyone really.

There's going to be so many people in your life — plenty of people in life — who hurt you. For whatever reason, whether they mean to or not. And I just believe for your own sanity? For your own mental health? It's better to just let some things go.

I actually, in hindsight… thank him. Because, if it wasn't for that bully, if it wasn't for that moment of feeling just completely crushed, and hopeless, and humiliated… about not making the team? Then I would have never found music.

So that moment changed my life forever. I gave up on basketball

right then and there. Dropped it completely. And I was just praying that I could find something else that would give me purpose. Something, anything.

Now, my high school was a polytechnic high school, which means that we had these special classes that could, you know, prepare us for the workforce if you like, didn't want to go to college right after high school.

Like, we had an auto shop at our school, which was kind of weird? But really cool at the same time.

Anyway, my friends and I chose to study radio. And honestly, we chose it because there wasn't much studying required. Well, at least we didn't study. We just went on WorldStar every day and messed around on the mics.

And we had the coolest teacher: Mr. Naganuma. He was so cool. He would let us like, use the radio room after school and record stuff for fun. So if

my friends and I had some kickback to go to and it started like a few hours after school, we'd just chill in the radio room and record hilarious stuff until it was time to go.

And this all started as a joke. We'd be like, recording really funny songs dissing other schools. And mind you, we're these kids who like, know nothing about writing or recording songs.

So then, I kinda grew this repetition of staying up right before we started recording these songs.

I liked to write out my lyrics, and listen to my favorite rappers, trying to, you know… figure it all out.

So in the radio room, we'd all stand around the mic. We'd have our lyrics on paper in front of us. And we'd go around taking turns recording all our songs on this super cheap equipment. One take, so we wanted to be ready.

That was honestly one of the best times of my life. That shit was really, really fun.

After some time though, I started to realize like, "Hey… my rapping's pretty good." 'Cause you know I'd be up super late writing out all these lyrics the night before. I put a lot of effort into it.

And it was genuinely the first time in my life where I felt like… elite. 'Cause I had never felt that way about basketball.

And I don't want to be narcissistic or anything but, I knew that out of all my friends, my peers? Rapping could be my thing.

I mean, I wasn't sure if I was good enough to make a career out of it. But, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue.

I did not want to tell anyone I wanted to pursue rap as a career at first. Because the last time I tried to pursue something, you know, basketball, I was made fun of. Publicly. And that shit traumatized the fuck out of me.

So I end up going to college after high school, and at this point, no one knows I want to be a rapper.

I went to Portland State University, which is more like a commuter school? So there's no college football games, no campus life. It's just not that typical university experience.

There weren't a lot of people who looked like me there either. And just no one who had my same taste for things, like music, sports, fashion. I was very, very lonely.

But I still held on to this dream of becoming an artist one day. I kept this very close to my chest because I didn't want anyone to know. Not even my parents.

Because like, I watched my parents work their asses off my whole life. They've worked harder than anyone I've ever known. Graveyard shifts, and just… they never got the payoff they deserved. So I didn't want to be a disappointment to them, and I didn't want to be a disappointment to myself if music didn't work out for me.

'Cause I knew after college,

I'd be in debt. And I was just so terrified of ending up in some system that worked against me. Or like a career that I had no passion for. To me, that was just so depressing.

And like, not to be dark or anything but, I literally thought to myself, "If music doesn't work out for me… what's the point of living? Why live my life without a purpose?"

Those thoughts really did cross my mind, even to the point where I told myself, "If I don't make it in this shit by

21… fuck it. I'ma just give it all up."

And thinking back on that, that's kind of ridiculous right? Because there's so much to life! And you should not limit yourself to an age. Especially 21. That's like so young! I don't even know what the fuck I was thinking.

But, I was just at a point in my life where I knew I had to find a purpose. And I had no plans of being average.

I've always

dreamt of leaving a legacy. That's been my goal. Like, I want a fucking statue in Portland after I die. And I'm dead serious about that. I'm here to make an impact, and I'm not gonna settle for anything less.

Now, if you're at a point in your life where you feel like, you don't have a passion for something or that, life just isn't falling into place for you? One advice I can give you is to have faith in yourself.

It takes time. Everything is time.

And it can be the most annoying thing to wait on.

But if you're patient, and you work hard, and you don't give up — and you're also kind to people — I believe you'll find something that gives you purpose.

Things might not work out exactly the way you dreamed they would? But everyone has the ability to find the thing that makes life worth living.

So I kept this passion for music and rapping as a huge secret. And even to this day,

despite having "made it," there's still some songs that I'm super secretive about.

Again… I'm sensitive.

And a while back, I shared a teaser for this song I wrote called "Sad Asshole". I haven't released it yet, and I honestly don't want to release it. I'm just really self-conscious about this song and I don't know how to finish it.

But ever since I shared this snippet on Instagram, I think it was like two years ago? Some of my fans have been asking me to put it out like every day.

So,

because I'm here on Mindset, and because I really appreciate you for being here, I'm gonna get over my hyper-sensitive-secretive-self and play at least a little bit more of the song for you.

Okay, here it is.

[🎵 Sad Asshole (unofficial release) by Aminé]

So yeah, that's not the whole song, but that's the song. That is

"Sad Asshole".

So in this episode, I opened up and shared a lot of deeply personal secrets.

It's hard. We all got secrets.

But it's funny how we kind of got these two camps, right? Like some secrets we legit don't want to tell anybody. But other secrets, we're like dying to tell people. And just for whatever reason, we can't.

For me, my secret passion for music was in the second category. As much as I was scared to tell people

that I wanted to become a rapper, and I was truly scared of failing, deep down I did want to share it with the world one day.

[🎵 Beast by Aminé (Prod. Pasqué)]

So, if you have something you really want to pursue in life or something you want to show the world, but you're just kind of nervous and shy about sharing it? I really encourage you to have faith in yourself.

I mean, don't force it. If you're not ready, you're not ready.

But just, don't let the fear of failure or rejection stop you from doing what you want to do.

You got to let some of those secrets out,

This episode covers depression, adult content, and explicit language. If you or someone you know is in need of help, the American National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is +1-800-273-8255.

Don't hide the best parts of who you are.

Secrets

[This episode contains adult language.]

Episode Three: Breakthrough.

Like we were talking in previous episodes, I kept my passion to pursue music as a secret — for a long time.

But even though I wasn't ready for anyone to know about it yet, I was ready to hustle. I was willing to do anything

to make it happen.

So, my first year of college, I didn't choose music as my major but, I did walk up to the desk at the music school.

And I was like, "Do you know any students who play piano, or like can help me produce or somethin'?"

And they mentioned this one girl: Robin Kim. She didn't play the piano, but she played violin. And she was really talented.

She also was a big fan of Kanye West so I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is sick."

But… she didn't know how to produce music, so we couldn't really make anything together.

And I was like, "Okay, well, I'm not gonna let this stop me."

So we ended up just being really good friends.

[🎵 Said & Done by Aminé (Prod. Pasqué)]

And then I think it was like a month after that, I met this guy in class named David. And he was like the quietest kid ever. But my professor asked

something about music, something about if anyone knew how to play piano. And David raised his hand.

So I went up to him after class and I was like, "Yo, do you know how to produce music? Like, is that something you'd ever want to do?"

And he was like, "Um, honestly, I've never done that before but, I would love to."

So, he and I started working together. And then David introduced me to this other kid, Irvin. And Irvin played guitar. And we just hit it off.

Irv now goes by the name Pasqué, and he produces most of my music to this day.

So I was a

freshman in college, and Irvin was still a senior in high school at the time. But we'd always link up together to work on music, and I made sure that we would grow together.

He was learning how to produce music for the first time, and I was learning how to write songs. And for the next like two or three years, we would create like this rough schedule to work on music together.

The goal for me was to put out a mixtape, so we'd work on the music for it, and then we finally put it out.

It was called "Calling Brio" and, you know

it did well to our standards but you know it wasn't like it blew up or made me famous at the time. That was one of the first times Kaytranada also gave me a free beat so, you know, it was a big deal for us and it was a step in the right direction.

So me and Irv kept working together. We got better and better. And you guys are probably curious what this stuff sounds like, right? So here's a clip of a song we did.

[🎵 Brightwood by Aminé ​​(Prod. Pasqué & BOYBEATSWORLD)]

So yeah that was like the start of my career I think. Me and Irv, we just decided, "Hey, let's take this to the next level, you know? Not just working on music whenever we feel like we have time for it, but let's make time for it."

So I would look at his school schedule and then I'd look at my school schedule. And then I would plan out all the days we could work each week. I think it was like two or three days out of the week, from whatever hour to whatever hour, but — we never not worked on those days.

I was just really trying to perfect my sound, and you know I wanted to make sure I was something different and something unique when I came out.

[🎵 Summer Feelz by Aminé]

I think one of the reasons why Pasqué and I clicked so well from the jump, even though we had like no experience doing any of this, was that we each knew what we were bringing to the table.

Like my sense of what good hip-hop is and his sense of musicality — 'cause he's so musically trained and talented — I think that's what allowed for us to have really good chemistry. Like I couldn't make music without him, and he couldn't make music without me. We needed each other, you know?

He would start us from scratch,

make the foundation, and then that allowed me to build on top of that. We really aspired to be like Pharrell and Chad Hugo. 'Cause those guys? When they made stuff together, like The Neptunes? They knew exactly what they were going for.

And so, yeah. Things just worked out really well for us, and they still do.

So, all this time throughout college, me and Irv are still making music in Portland. But pretty much every summer I go out to New York for internships. The reason I was able to do this was because I have family out there, and I built a couple connections through someone named Kristen Fraser.

I met Kristen when she was a director

at Nike, 'cause I had helped them design a shoe through this really cool program back in high school called SEI.

So anyways, we always kept in touch, and I'd ask her if there were any places I could intern at out in New York. And every summer she'd help me find something. She even got me an internship at Def Jam. And I thought, "Aw shit, this is it! Maybe I could like, you know, share my music with them?"

But that was not the case… I quickly found out that was very unprofessional. That's not the way to do it and you know,

that's just, that just comes with growth.

Aw man… I remember this one time, Big Sean came into the office. And somebody told me to go grab him a sandwich. They tipped me like five bucks for it too.

It felt a little disrespectful because, you know I wasn't supposed to be doing that for my job but, I wasn't gonna be that guy who was like, "Hell nah, I'm above this."

So I did it, you know, with a smile on my face. And it's just a memory that sticks with me.

I don't think I've told him it yet but, you know, maybe one day I will.

[🎵 La Danse by Aminé (Prod. Kaytranada)]

Anyway, throughout all of this, me and Irv were still making our mixtapes in college. I get to my senior year and, remember how I didn't really want anyone to know that I wanted to pursue music? I actually made a promise with myself that, if I didn't make it by 21 — I'd quit.

I'd drop music completely.

I was just so scared of

disappointing myself again. Like, that basketball rejection fucked me up.

So this one day, I get an email from this guy named Justin Lehmann. He was working as an assistant at this booking agency. And, I guess he saw one of my mixtapes and reached out to me.

He was like, "Hey man, I really love this mixtape. You're definitely up and coming. If there's any way I can help you get some of your stuff on blogs let me know."

'Cause in that era blogs were the big thing.

And I was already trying to figure out how to get my stuff up there. So it meant a lot that this guy reached out to me. Not just as a fan but you know, someone who wanted to help.

So Justin was living out in New York, and we decided to meet up during one of my summer visits. And I was just thinking, "Aw this dude works for some booking agency. You know, he's big, he's rich."

I didn't

want him to think I'm super broke or anything, or like, I really needed this. Even though I did.

So I asked him, "Do you want to go to Sarabeth's?" Which is like this super bougie-ass restaurant in Central Park that I had no business going to. I didn't know shit about that place. I just knew that the waffles were like 30 bucks or something.

And I was thinking in my head too while walking over there, "Man if this meeting turns out terrible, I don't want to be stuck paying for this shit."

So we met up for breakfast, and then we ended up hanging out for like the whole day. Like, I met his sister afterward, and I even met his girlfriend that day too. We went to his apartment, and we just clicked after that. Pretty much spent the whole summer together.

He'd introduce me to all these people at parties saying like, "Yo this guy Aminé? He's gon blow! He's gonna be one of the biggest artists ever."

It was exactly the kind of confidence booster I needed in my life at the time, because I had no idea where I was going at that point. And it just meant so much

to me that this guy who barely knew me believed in my music. Like he was genuinely a fan.

(Justin Lehmann)

My name is Justin Lehmann. I am the founder of a company called Mischief Management. I am Aminé's manager. He's the first client of mine, and we've been working together for about seven years now.

So we met up at Sarabeth's for, I believe it was brunch, lunch, breakfast, one of 'em. And you know I, I understandably, I think that when we first sat down, he was kind of apprehensive… which, which makes sense.

I was this random person from the internet that was living in New York, and had reached out to him on Gmail, because I liked a mixtape of his so, that's not really the most natural way for a friendship to start.

But really quickly, like those barriers broke down between the two of us, and it just felt like we really hit it off

and, and our friendship was kind of so natural and, I think that that friendship has, has been the foundation of our relationship together.

I try to think back, you know if there was a formal moment at which he said to me, you know the exact words, "Will you be my manager?" and I, I don't know if it was that formal but, I just remember deep down kind of across that whole summer… knowing how badly I wanted to work with him in that capacity? You know as his manager? Because to me what that meant was just being a trusted confidant, and somebody that

could participate in that process of really growing him as an artist alongside him?

I think that he may have been in a grocery store when he asked me to be his manager, and I'm pretty sure it would have been at like the West 4th Gristedes, which I guess if you're from New York kinda means something, but if you're not it's just a random grocery store.

And I guess the informality of that is really the perfect way to describe just kind of how casual it was? And it's, it's weird to think now

that what was ultimately like, something of an offhand conversation in a grocery store line fundamentally changed, you know the course of my life and my career.

[🎵 Buckwild by Aminé]

I guess, I guess the thing that I would say, and maybe this applies to people who are already fans of Aminé, and what I would want them to really know about him is like — he is who you think he is. And I mean that in the most

complimentary way possible.

I think that, when you think of some of these other artists, you'll have them really built up in your head only to realize that it was something of a house of cards and, you know something comes out and it all falls apart and they weren't who you think they were?

But with Aminé like, you know that, that's not the case. He's not that house of cards. He's not this person that, you know all of a sudden, like your world is shattered and your vision of him was never accurate in the first place.

He really is who you think he is, and, and that person that you look up to that you look to for inspiration, that you think is, you know so funny and

so creative. I mean that's who he is.

So I start working on a new mixtape after meeting Justin. But you know, he still had his day job and I was still trying to finish my senior year of college. He helped me get on a couple of blogs, which was really cool but, it didn't go viral or

anything.

And I think I did get a little depressed during that time 'cause, I was making a ton of songs. Putting 'em out, getting a little bit of buzz on SoundCloud but, what the fuck am I going to do next, right? Like, I wasn't a pop star or anything.

And then November of 2015, I sent Justin a new song called "Caroline". He thought it was pretty good, but he wasn't like raving about it or anything. And I definitely wasn't raving about it either, 'cause I had just made like 15 songs in the span of those couple of months.

But for some reason, "Caroline" was a song that Justin's girlfriend really loved. She was like, "Oh my God, I love this!" And you know she's a white girl who listens to Taylor Swift. So to see her really love this rap song was really interesting to me.

And then March 9th of 2016 is when we decided to officially drop "Caroline".

We released it independently. We spent about like 15 bucks to get it up on iTunes. And then one of Justin's

good friends, Daniel Herzog sent it to Tuma. And Tuma was running all the playlists at Spotify at the time. This is 2016, you know, people are still listening to CD's and playlists are just blowing up.

And then this one day, I get this text message from one of my prom dates from high school. She was like, "Hey, I was listening to this song and it sounds like your voice. Is this you?"

And when I went to check… the song was "Caroline". It had like a hundred thousand plays, and I was

like, "Holy shit!"

I didn't understand how the fuck it got to that many plays.

It was crazy. But, I honestly thought things would die down after a while, and just end there. You know I was really happy with just a hundred thousand plays.

And then… we hit a million.

At that point, I was like, "Aight, I'm movin' to New York, and I'm gonna to do this." 'Cause I had made a little bit of money off the song at that point, so I was just ready to drop everything and give it my all.

But man like, that was really a huge jump for me. Summer of 2016, I moved out to New York, to this tiny ass apartment in Williamsburg. I was sharing it with this random white girl too. I met her off Craigslist and didn't really know her at all.

And New York was just fucking terrible…

Don't hate me for saying this but, I just need my space. I'm from the West coast.

But anyway, "Caroline" keeps blowing up on playlists at this point. And this one day, I go to see Justin at his apartment and he sits me down and he's like, "Yo, we got our first label offer. Someone's willing to give us $300,000."

And I was like, "Shut the fuck up!"

And honestly? $300,000? That's nothing in this business. And I really want to say this number because I want

artists to understand their value. I want to be completely transparent. 300K is nothing to this music industry if you have a song that's blowing up. Fuck that.

But for me, I had never seen that type of number, you know? I'm super broke at this point. I have overdraft fees in my Bank of America and I'm eating plain rice. And I just had no fucking money to be honest. So hearing someone say they wanted to give me $300,000? My heart was just… I was ready to jump out the window.

And mind you,

March of 2016, I'm 21 years old. I'm just about to turn 22, 'cause my birthday's in April. And I realized that… my dreams are starting to come true.

So the song starts blowing up even more, and I honestly have no idea why. And the label offers just keep pouring in.

Then in June, June of 2016, I dropped the music video for "Caroline". It was a video I produced and directed independently, and shout out to Brian Kinnes.

He's this awesome young creative from Portland who helped me make the video. And also our cinematographer, Nick Pop.

But yeah, after we dropped that video? "Caroline" skyrocketed even more. Like it was on steroids.

So me and Justin ended up going back and forth from New York to L.A. that whole summer. Meeting with a ton of record labels, getting thrown deals left and right. It was a lot, you know?

Like, I've never experienced something like this. I'm this young kid from Portland, and I'm completely starstruck because

this isn't something normal for me at all.

And thank God I had someone like Justin who was so competent, so smart, so wise… he just has such a good head on his shoulders. He was never in this for the money. And he also made sure I didn't do dumb shit, because without him, you know my excited ass might've signed for 300,000. And then I'd end up broke as shit in the next one or two years.

I mean, this is real life. This happens to a lot of artists. If we don't do the business side of things right, then we get screwed over. And you know we're

just trying to fulfill our dreams and we don't want to focus on the business side.

So what ends up happening is that artists get trapped into these horrible deals that get sold off to other labels. So without someone like Justin… I'd be kind of lost.

So I end up signing with Republic Records. That whole next year we worked on my debut album called Good for You, which released in July of 2017. And, it did really fuckin' well.

"Caroline" is a song that means so much to me because it really jump started my career. But the reason I'm sharing all of this is because… for the longest time I was terrified that my life wouldn't work out. And you know, looking back and hearing my story, it's easy to think, "Oh, Aminé just got really lucky. Everything fell into place for him."

But nah, I worked my ass off. Even throughout all those mixtapes in college with Irvin too, like, I still did

what I had to do. I tried to keep my grades up in school and, you know, just trying to prepare for whatever life may throw at me.

So if you want to get somewhere in life, if you want things to work out for you, it requires hustle and being open to meeting new people. But you can't do none of that if you're too scared to jump and you just lock yourself in your room all the time, right?

And yeah, maybe I put too much pressure on myself by thinking like, "I gotta make it by 21 or just quit." But honestly, I feel like that mentality, that hustle, is exactly what got me to this

point.

So don't stress yourself out too much. Work hard, stay focused, and… let life do the rest.

This is my Mindset.

Life is all about breakdowns and breakthroughs.

Breakthrough

[This episode contains adult language.]

Okay, we at Episode Four now: Visuals.

Visuals are super, super important to me. Whether it's something I make for my music, or it's a clothing brand, or even if I'm just taking a video of my mom — I need it to look good.

I'm just picky.

I'm picky because I'm super decisive. I'm not gonna like, not know what I want, you know? Unless there's like three amazing flavors at an ice cream shop, I usually can make a decision. It's like, not that difficult for me I guess.

The way things are shot, what camera they're using, whether it's like anamorphic or whether it's, you know, on film, I think that is super important for me? The way the styling

looks, the way the color palette looks of the movie.

I think when you're making a film or a project or a music video, you kind of have a chance to create your own world so, if I don't feel like I'm in your world when I'm watching that piece of content or that movie or music video, then I don't feel like I got anything out of it as a viewer. So, I think that's what kind of draws me to a certain TV or a film.

I think my love for film started, back in 2013?

I believe I was a freshman in college. I had a lot of time on my hands, and I was alone a lot so I would watch a lot of movies. In bed or I would stay up late… college was kind of a lonely time for me so, I discovered this movie called Submarine.

And it was directed by

Richard Ayoade, and it's a British film. Just kind of a film that I would never just watch casually? And it just kinda changed my perspective on the way things are supposed to be shot. The way it was filmed was like, amazing. And it kind of made me realize I want my music videos to be like this film. And I want everything I do to be as good as this film.

And that's, that, that movie kind of set it off for me and from there, I discovered, you know people like Wes Anderson and, and the bigger directors,

and my love for them.

Directing and acting is something I genuinely enjoy, you know? I've been directing all my videos from the jump.

I pretty much just got into directing because I wanted to do things my way, and I'm an Aries and I'm just, you know, I'm decisive. And I didn't want to leave it in someone else's hands who barely knows me to direct my videos because… it could turn out horrible and then I would have wasted a bunch of money that I couldn't have afforded to lose?

I just couldn't afford to hire a director for my music videos when I was coming up in music. It was too expensive. I was broke in college, I had no money, and I was living with my parents. So, the only way I could make music videos, or make short films, or anything I really wanted to, I had to put in my own financial aid money.

And that, that was a hard time for me just because I had to really believe in myself, and this is something I had

never done? So I had to really hustle. You know, 'cause I was the producer of the music video, I was the assistant producer, and I was the director. I was, I was really, you know, tryna have all my ducks in a row.

When I'm directing, I really take pride in it. I'm in editing rooms for eight hours a day with Jack Begert, and we're figuring this out. You know when him and me co-direct,

that's my guy, and he, he really helped me elevate my music videos. You know we, we partnered together on OnePointFive and on.

It's kind of been a beautiful relationship between us because when people co-direct, sometimes it doesn't go well, but with him and me, we're, we're actual friends. And, yeah it always works out smooth 'cause when we're on a music video like "Compensating," a big production, we get a lot of shots. If you watch that music video, there's a million shots in it so, there

is no way you can shoot a music video like that usually, in a day, if you're letting some label director do that for you.

But when it's me and Jack, we're best friends and, we get that we're trying to save money and we're not trying to waste it like a label would. So, while he's directing the shots of the champagne glasses five feet away, I'm directing Yosief and Jonathan to hit the tennis ball. And, we're getting two shots done at the same time.

And that is so, so

productive for a music video. 'Cause you can really shoot something in a day, when everyone is on their job, and everyone understands that time is money.

Usually when you're on music video sets for other artists, time isn't money. I feel like a lot of people waste time, make excuses, are lazy about it, and you know just want to make a quick buck because the label has money and, they don't really care about the artists.

So, you know, I always just wanted to put things into my own hands? And if things don't go

well, I could just blame myself.

In terms of my visual style, I mean a lot of people already know I'm heavily influenced by some of the greats? Like Tarantino, Wes Anderson, but I think I'm still honing into my own style, you know? I'm young, I'm 26, so a lot of these big directors we praise weren't really known for their craft until their late thirties or forties.

The thing that drew me to Wes… I call him the Wes like he's my friend, but the thing that drew me to Wes Anderson was really the color palette, that I feel like I'm in his own world when I'm watching one of his films.

And that is the beauty of, you know, what I was speaking to earlier about making your own project. I think when you are really bringing the viewer into your world, you're, you know, you're making it worth it. I want to buy the merch. I want to, I want to be part of that. I want to wear the vintage tees

with The Royal Tenenbaums on it. You know what I mean?

The theme of a movie is so important and I feel like Wes does that really, really well.

And the comedy is just so quirky and that's like my favorite type of comedy. I don't really like things that are, you know, ridiculously like super funny? I love like dry kind of, you know British humor.

Usually people say that there's no formula to making good art, but I believe that the one

key to making good art is to just have fun while doing it.

If you're not having fun and you're not being, you know your true self? Then you're kind of, you know, not really caring about what you think but caring more about what other people might think, or

what your friends might think, or your family, or this person, or that person.

And when you're having fun it's a beautiful thing because, you're not worried about anything other than the art and that's what makes the art so good. My best songs, my best music videos, I was having the most fun. If anything was bad, I was probably stressed out or I was probably going through something at the time.

Everyone is really split when it comes to art. I'm sure you've heard it so many times but, art is subjective as fuck. It's literally all opinion-based. Music, film, T.V. — everything.

A critic could be like, "This album is 10 out of 10! The best thing we've ever heard!"

But the kids might say, "This album is horrible…"

You know what I mean? So, I don't think there's a formula to creating the perfect visual, or perfect sound, or perfect design, or whatever.

Another big transition for me was, kinda learning how to work with more people. You know, I mentioned I was pretty much doing everything myself when I started this whole thing.

The plus side to that was I had complete creative control. But once I started to level up in my career, I had to build a team of people to work with.

I think what makes a good

collaboration whether it's in creative work or, whether it's just someone you're working with, anyone — if you can't have dinner with the people you're working with, and you can't, feel like maybe this person, you know, could be my friend? Then… you're probably not making the best stuff with them.

I found that most of the people who've become my friends, like Jack or Christian who's a photographer of mine,

these people are like lifelong friends of mine that I'll have for a long time, so, being able to have that close relationship with people kind of makes the best work, honestly.

Not every collaboration that you have is going to go great or smooth. There will be some that turn out sour.

And I think you should just use those as learning experiences because, every failure that you have in your life or career, whatever it may be, is always gonna help you in life. It, it'll never hurt you. Even though it might seem like it at the time.

People have hurt me and people have, you know, created our relationship to be sour, but I just use those moments as learning experiences, and they really helped me and motivated me to become

a better director, a better artist, a better friend, and a better person.

I've probably hurt others too. Not intentionally but, I was young and I, and I was learning. So we all kind of learn from each other's mistakes really.

When fame hit me… I was pretty naive. I would just go to certain things like restaurants, or

events, or movie theaters, and just regular things and realize, "Oh," like I… people are gonna like, take your photo while you're eating or, come and interrupt like me and my mom talking as we're having dinner, or… you know what I mean? Like little things I had to kind of adjust my life to.

I've realized you can't really just be an asshole anytime you want, you don't have that kind of luxury? Because somebody's gonna talk

about… "Aminé was so rude to me at this restaurant. He didn't like the way his eggs were scrambled. And man, that guy sucks!"

And people would be like, "Oh my God! He was complaining about his eggs? What an asshole!" And just little stuff like that, that you know, you think are like… well I can't literally I… it feels like you can't make a mistake, you know what I mean?

And that's kind of what I had to adjust myself to? Like, I can't have a bad day and be rude to

somebody just for a second? Just to let my anger out, because I'm going through something? I would be seen as an asshole forever I guess?

And… yeah, I don't, I don't take it for granted or hate it, I just think… I appreciate it a lot more now because of the pandemic, honestly. I, I realized how lucky we are, just as human beings to, to just see each other.

So like any photo a

fan wants to take, or any conversation they want to have, I'm gonna have it. You know what I mean? Just because… life is short and this world is pretty crazy. I know that sounds very cliché but, it's been a crazy year, so.

My biggest advice for anyone trying to pursue their dreams or, sustain their

happiness in their career is… make sure you're having a lot of fun while you're doing it. I said that earlier, but I say it because it's super, super important that you're not just creating the work for personal gain, or popularity, or money, because it shows in the work. And it always does.

You know fans are really smart, so they can tell when something is complete bullshit. And they call bullshit everyday

on artists. So, just make sure you are happy with your work, and you are having a great time, and you believe in yourself.

We all have something that we want to see happen in our life, right? Some kind of vision for the future. And it doesn't have to be this grand super inspirational thing either.

Whatever vision you got in your head, in your heart, just remember that everything has a certain frame. A certain

lens. A certain focus. Not everyone sees the world the same way you do.

But if you feel like you found your focus in life, if you found a vision that brings you purpose, and joy, and hope… don't let anyone take that away from you.

People won't always see what you see.

But that's on them, and not on you.

This is my Mindset.

Visuals

[This episode contains adult language.]

Yo, we at Episode Five, and we're going to talk about what it's like to be in Limbo. 

A lot of you already know that I dropped my second album, Limbo, during quarantine. I had already been working on that album before COVID hit.

And then when it did, the whole world just kinda stopped, right?

It felt like… it felt like we went from 90 to zero in an instant.

I was at my friend Simon's house, and we were watching a Utah Jazz game. And… we were watching the screen and we knew that, COVID had been talked about a little before, and it was kind of this, bubbling rumor, you know, at first.

And, we were watching the game and we

realized they literally canceled the game because of Rudy Gobert. And… he touched all the microphones, and it was this whole crazy thing, and in that moment, I went home and I was like, panicking. I was like, "Oh my God, do I need to buy groceries? Like, we're going to be in the house for two weeks? That's crazy!"

And then I realized those two weeks turned into… a year and a half almost, right? And, that moment was, you know, my first moment

realizing that COVID was gonna be a thing, and it was here to stay.

The first moments of lockdown for me were just, you know, I kind of looked at the brighter side of things. I was like, "Two weeks in the house, this could be great? I'm going to binge watch a lot of things and, I'm just gonna cook a lot and, do the things I said I was gonna do, but I hadn't done yet."

But then I realized that this is going to last much longer and, I'm gonna need to push back Limbo. 'Cause Limbo was supposed to come out in the spring.

It was really disappointing for me because this is something I had prepared for two years, before? You know what I mean? Not that time should be a measure of success, but I was really excited to release this 'cause I hadn't released music in a while.

So for me,

it just took a lot of having to replan, and reschedule, and rethink everything we wanted to do, because there was a lot of different types of music videos I wanted to shoot for these songs, and I could not shoot these videos the way I wanted to.

You know "Riri" was a COVID-safe video, and "Compensating" was a COVID-safe video. And those videos would probably not be the same videos

if there wasn't a pandemic.

So, for me, it just took a lot of readjusting to my life and, not getting to tour an album after you release it is also really devastating. Just because seeing the fans front row, singing every word to your album really makes it feel like you did something right.

And, when you're at home after you release something you've worked on for a few years, it’s kind of an underwhelming feeling?

Because you're just at the house, and you're looking at things through your phone and you're not getting to see people, getting to talk to people, make conversations, and, and really hear how the music affected them.

And you know, this is such a small detail and problem compared to what everyone else has had to go through. So many people have lost their loved ones.

But, for me as an artist, this is just something I was passionate about. It wasn't just an album for me, it was an experience and it was a project, you know a lot of people had been waiting for and had been excited for, so I wanted to make sure I delivered.

And it was a little devastating for me not being able to create the art I wanted to create for people because of restrictions and, and it's totally fine. You know, it just kinda made me more creative, honestly. And I had to, to work it all

out and figure out how we could still make people happy without being able to do it the usual way.

Because people are at home, so people really needed something to motivate them. So I'm really, really happy that we got to put out Limbo during the pandemic. We just had a change of plans, but you know, change kinda makes you stronger.

I

think one of the hardest parts during the pandemic has just been trying to keep my happiness intact. Before the pandemic, everyone who knows me knows I'm a really happy guy. I'm always kinda trying to look towards the brightest side of things but, once the pandemic kept getting pushed further and further back and, you know, lives keep getting

lost… it was kinda just bad news, after bad news, after bad news, and it was a lot of trauma for just a human being to process in a year.

Because you know, you might have a bad week or a bad month but, when you have a bad year and a half? You know, that… that just takes a toll on you and what you have to look forward to, honestly.

I, I think a lot of people in the pandemic would wake up every day and just be like, "Ugh," you know, "Another day… of this." And that was the same for me.

So for me, I knew when I was staying in bed longer, it kinda made me more depressed. So, I always tried to wake up early and at least take Oliver on a walk. And, you know just being with

myself and my dog and taking a 30 minute walk, that kind of created some peace in my life and, it made me feel a lot more whole.

So COVID has been tough. And I know a lot of you were in the same mental space as me. Or maybe you're still there now. 

But one thing I do look back on with some gratitude is having been able to finish my album Limbo.

We dropped it back in August of 2020.

Limbo as a title had nothing to do with COVID at first. I think a lot of people kind of assume that because it dropped during the pandemic but, I had the title registered and the album already ready to drop, and that Limbo tagline and everything, and all the songs way before the pandemic.

So, it was just a coincidence and, you know, I, I do think that the album being named that and the world going through

what it went through at that time period, it was the right moment to, to release an album like that because it was so personal. And, I know it made a lot of my fans happy.

The idea of Limbo came to me when I was 24, when I was about to turn 25 and I was on tour. I felt as though I had reached this point of success in my life that I

should be very happy and thankful for, but… I wasn't?

And, I felt as though I hadn't really grown as an adult yet. You know what I mean? I felt, I had grown musically and career-wise, but inside I still felt like an immature 19-year-old figuring life out.

So I kinda had a quarter-life crisis, as you would say. And

that's kind of where the title Limbo felt for me. I, I really felt as though I am in limbo, and it also just looked good on paper. And that's a big thing for me with titles of albums. If I can write it on a piece of paper and it looks good, then I know we're, we're going somewhere with this.

We started Limbo the way I like to do a lot of my albums.

I do this thing where I take over an Airbnb

for like a month. Somewhere discreet and somewhere, you know, pretty secluded. And, we set up the speakers and a lot of close producers and friends of mine come through and, you know, we barbecue and we eat and we drink and we just started making the album then and there.

It was just kind of a natural process where, you know, we're together and we're living together for a month, and we're kind of starting an album, and, and figuring out how I want it to sound.

And that's kind of how Limbo started creatively.

The music for Limbo was already done before the pandemic but, it was really, really hard to figure out how we were going to put together all these music videos. You know, I really wanted to make sure that we were putting together creative work that people would enjoy at home, but also was safe and mindful of others.

So we had to get really creative with the way we did things and,

you know only have like two or three people in the videos, and, and make sure we were picking locations that were outdoors and, wasn't cliché and typical, which was kind of hard to do in L.A. because everything is used and we couldn't travel.

So yeah we really had to put our minds together, and, and try to make something creative for the fans and for the people.

I'm really proud of the

"Compensating" video. We had a really small crew. Once we finished editing and figuring out all those scenes and the cuts, it just felt good. You know, it felt, it felt right. It felt like this was a little bit of excitement and joy, I could give to people during a time that's so sad.

And, you know, it was summertime. People wanted to be outside, so I gave them kind of an exciting, colorful, outside video… which is pretty much usual Aminé.

I think when it comes to my style musically, it's pretty much bright and happy. And not in a cheesy, commercial, Barney type of way. But in a way that when people listen to an Aminé album, I want it to lift their spirits up, and I want it to be soothing for them, and I want it to

be their comfort album, and I always want my music to relate to the people.

I feel like my style has evolved a lot, recently? Just because I've just grown and that's how music is. You know, you experience different things in life from when you were 19 and started this music thing, and now I'm 26. So, my music is always gonna be evolving, but one thing I'm really grateful for when I'm looking back, is that I'm always gonna feel a

hundred percent about everything I put out.

For me, you are doing a disservice to yourself if you are putting out something that you are not happy with. Always make sure you carry that type of integrity with yourself, because… if you're not happy with it, the fans won't be happy with it. I just think that it's super important, you know that you're resilient about something like that.

I guess one advice I have, if you do feel like you're stuck, and kind of in limbo? Is to make sure that you know you have your own lane, and your own path. And I feel like we always compare ourselves to someone, or something, or some idea of what success looks like? When really success is different for every single one of us.

I believe we all have our own path. And,

once you really know that — and really believe it and not just say it — that's when you kind of find some happiness and some peace within yourself. And you're kind of not in limbo.

Even if you're not even doing anything. Like, if you just know that, "This is my path, and I don't have things figured out right now, but hopefully I will. And I'm gonna be open and trying different things, and I'm gonna be open to meeting new people," then, you know you'll be fine.

This past year and a half has been really tough on us. And not just because of the pandemic, but all the injustice, all the hate crimes, and just everything going on in the world.

But I'm really hoping that when things go back to normal… or at least I hope they go back to normal… we gotta keep all this stuff we've learned during this time.

Like I'm never taking anything for granted again after this.

And I wish it didn't take a pandemic for me to realize this.

But sometimes we just get so caught up… in life.The day to day, the hustle, and the grind. That maybe we do need a little limbo at times.

We need that time to stop. And reflect.

And remember what matters to us the most.

This is my Mindset.

Everyone experiences some limbo in life - and that's okay.

Limbo

[This episode contains adult language.]

Alright. Episode Six. Probably the most important episode in this Mindset. We callin' it "Grace".

When I look at the beginning of my career, I feel like my mindset was to prove everyone wrong, and prove to myself that I could do

this.

I think I was really, really, really hungry at that moment because… my life depended on it. And that was really my motivation. And I really didn't care about who was in my way. It wasn't about appreciating the little things in life.

I think now that I've been doing music for a couple of years, I feel so much more grace and, you know, passion for this music thing that I'm doing. I'm grateful for every opportunity that I get now.

And, you know, I

Living with grace isn't as hard as it may seem.

Aminé

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