Rising Star

Brian Imanuel proves how Asians in hip hop can thrive in the American music industry

- Marella Putri

Cheering crowds, thumping bass, and glimmering lights before a stage make a typical scenery that fills a musician's days. Even though those days are pretty much gone after the COVID-19 pandemic, some musicians continue to work and connect with their fans. One of them is Indonesian-born rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer Brian Imanuel Soewarno (21), well-known for his stage name Rich Brian. Brian released his latest extended play (EP) 1999 in August, consisting of seven songs and dubbed as his most personal project yet.

I worked a lot on it during quarantine, talking a lot about not overthinking and being free, that's kind of the whole concept of the EP. I think it's my first time making music and not really worrying too much about the outcome, and kind of enjoying the process more, Brian explains the album.

Brian says that he worked on most of the songs while staying inside his hotel room in Shanghai—where he had been residing for a few months due to his shoot as a judge for China's rap competition Rap for Youth. He would record and mix the song from his hotel room, send it to his friend, and go on Facetime to have another mixing session to get it done. By mid-October, the EP had garnered nearly 25 million streams on Spotify alone.

A few months before releasing 1999, Brian, who was stuck at his home in Los Angeles, released a couple of songs. At the beginning of lockdown in March, he published a homemade music video of his freestyle rap to Tokyo Drift (Fast and Furious) originally sung by Japanese hip hop group Teriyaki Boyz for the movie franchise. In April, he released another song titled