There's an insidious energy brewing in Rockville, Maryland. And it's arriving via the most unlikely of vessels: 24-year-old dark bedroom pop producer REI AMI. Branded as #reipop, the artist's sinister debut "MAKE IT MINE" squashes any misinterpretations about her intentions in the industry: to fuck shit up.
Brazenly opening with her distorted vocaloid demanding "can you shut the fuck up?," "MAKE IT MINE" is an odd amalgamation of nursery rhyme melody with REI AMI's girlish yet maniacal vocals ("cross my heart, hope you die"), draped atop a sinister trap beat. You can't help but fall into her macabre trance with lines like "open casket, open bar."
Born in Seoul, South Korea and transplanted to the states at age six, REI AMI's strictly Christian upbringing forbade "worldly" (read: not religious) music, thus adding diesel fuel to the creative fire kindling within her. “I remember getting in a lot of trouble from my parents whenever I got caught listening to music that wasn’t Christian. There was this one time my iTunes popped up while my dad was using the computer, and he saw ‘Birthday Sex’ by Jeremih and flipped out on me and told me I was going to go to hell for listening to that kind of music,” she shares.
Living in 2019 feels a lot like hell these days, but REI AMI flips the madness on its head, resulting in a sound dripping with jarring uniqueness. Embrace the darkness within.
