‘Good For You’ By Aminé Album Review: Bright & Bouncy, Rapper Defines Himself

The long-anticipated debut full-length album from rapper Aminé, titled Good For You, was released by Republic Records this past weekend to generally positive reviews. The 23-year-old Portlandian offers up a refreshing sound that fits in will with its summer release.

Good For You can be defined by one color: yellow. The album art – which crudely shows the rapper nearly naked on a blue toilet – is mostly yellow. The second track on the album is titled “Yellow.” And the overall sound has such a lightness to it that the color can’t help but stay on the listeners mind throughout.

Additionally, Aminé’s humor, which is arguably his trademark, is a yellow humor – silly and mostly vapid, but also, mostly entertaining.

Aminé, who was recently named a member of the XXL Freshman Class of 2017, proves that he is far and beyond his young rap contemporaries on this album. Most notably, Migos rapper Offset appears alongside Aminé on a track half way through the album called “Wedding Crashers.” The track, at least when Aminé is either singing (without auto-tune) or rapping, is a cruel dedication to ex-girlfriends – he sings, “This is dedicated to my ex lovers / Hope that you hear this, never find another / Me and my friends, we don’t worry or pretend / Hope you play this at your wedding / Yeah, the one I won’t attend.”

His voice is clear, his message is clear, and his flow throughout the song is varied and doesn’t get stale. Cue Offset.

The Migos rapper can’t even get the point of view correct as he says, “I got your girl on the low / I slide in it and then I’ma dodge in it,” rapping to some poor guy instead of the ex lovers Aminé has been rapping about for nearly two and a half minutes. Additionally, the Atlanta rapper mumbles his way through a verse filled with luxury brands and stale scenes of wealth.

While Aminé spends the majority of the album cracking jokes, taking jabs at those who have slighted him, and utilizing cheap metaphors as punch lines, there are several tracks where he gets quite serious.

Joined by the great Charlie Wilson on “Turf,” the duo croons, “I look around and I see nothing in my neighborhood / Not satisfied, don’t think I’ll ever wanna stay for good.” While the rhyme is pretty first rate, the sentiment and message is still there and fairly heavy.

The crowning achievement of Good For You is the album’s first single “Caroline,” a dedication to all the women the rapper has ever wanted to pursue seriously – although, his approach to swooning these women may not work for all men, and certainty not for all women.

The song is light, bouncy, fun, and catchy as hell. The music video, which Aminé directed himself, has racked up over 180 million views since its release in December and it’s understandable why. Aminé has proven himself to be a master in theme in brand.

Hopefully, he is able to develop it a little bit more in the future but for now, Aminé has given us a great debut album to listen to, nearly mindlessly, in the yellow summer sun.