KAYTRAMINÉ (2023)

Kaytraminé is the debut album by the duo of the same name, consisting of American rapper Aminé and Haitian-Canadian record producer Kaytranada. It was released on May 19, 2023, by CLBN, Kaytranada, and Venice Music, and features guest musicians Big Sean, Amaarae, Snoop Dogg, Freddie Gibbs, and Pharrell Williams. The album was nominated for Rap Album/EP of the Year at the 2024 Juno Awards.

Background

The first connection between the duo came when Aminé released an unofficial remix of Kaytranada's song "At All" in 2014. Kaytranada produced three songs from Aminé's 2015 mixtape Calling Brio. Kaytranada also produced the Rejjie Snow album Dear Annie, which included the Aminé-featuring song "Egyptian Luvr".

Recording

The duo rented a house in Malibu, California, in 2021, where they recorded together nonstop for two weeks. Kaytranada composed instrumentals during the daytime and Aminé wrote lyrics to them at night. Kaytranada took several months to find samples for the album, including pieces from Bollywood films.

Style

The album took inspiration from sources including jazz pianist Bob James and rapper Don Toliver.

Release

On April 4, 2023, both artists shared a teaser video to social media in which Kaytranada remixed the two's names together into their combined duo name and Aminé danced along. The posts were captioned "Kaytraminé by Kaytraminé, coming soon". On April 7, they released the album's lead single, "4eva" featuring Pharrell Williams, along with announcing a release date of May 12. On May 9, they released the album's cover art and track listing and announced the album's new release date on May 19. The second single, "Rebuke", was released May 15. The album was released on May 19 by CLBN, Kaytranada, and Venice Music. The instrumental version was released on September 15, 2023.

Live

On April 14, 2023, Kaytranada had a set at Coachella 2023. During that set, he brought out Aminé as a guest, where the duo performed the live debut of "4eva". On July 12, the duo announced a five-date tour with stops at their hometowns of Montreal and Portland, as well as performances in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

Reception

Kaytraminé was included on the long list for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize.

Personnel

Musicians

Aminé – vocals

Freddie Gibbs – vocals (2)

Pharrell Williams – vocals (3)

Big Sean – vocals (5)

Amaarae – vocals (7)

Snoop Dogg – vocals (10)

Technical

Kaytranada – producer

Aminé – producer (5)

Pharrell Williams – producer (3)

David Nakaji – mixing engineer

Lauren D'Elia – mastering engineer, recording engineer (3–11)

Emmanuel Gallegos – recording engineer

Rafa Alvarez – recording engineer (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11)

Aleksei Savchenko – recording engineer (1, 2, 4, 7, 11)

Tom Kahre – recording engineer (5)

Travis Shaggy Marshall – recording engineer (10)