Missy Elliott and AJ Tracey Hop on a Remix of Aminé’s “Red Mercedes”

Is there a large American city with less of a hip hop legacy than Portland, Oregon? Like Seattle, the Northwest hub has been a bastion of hipstery indie rock since the late ‘90s, but while its neighbor to the north boasts Sir Mix-A-Lot, Macklemore, Shabazz Palaces, Jake One, Blue Scholars, Nacho Picasso and others as hip-hop fixtures, the Rose City didn’t have a single recognizable name in the rap game until Aminé showed up last year.

The 23-year-old was born and raised in the heart of Portland, and around this time last year, his breakout single “Caroline” peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, Aminé has been relatively quiet, releasing only two new songs in the past 12 months. Today, his most recent single, “Red Mercedes,” got the remix treatment from none other than Missy Elliott and British MC AJ Tracey.

Is there a large American city with less of a hip hop legacy than Portland, Oregon? Like Seattle, the Northwest hub has been a bastion of hipstery indie rock since the late ‘90s, but while its neighbor to the north boasts Sir Mix-A-Lot, Macklemore, Shabazz Palaces, Jake One, Blue Scholars, Nacho Picasso and others as hip-hop fixtures, the Rose City didn’t have a single recognizable name in the rap game until Aminé showed up last year.

The 23-year-old was born and raised in the heart of Portland, and around this time last year, his breakout single “Caroline” peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, Aminé has been relatively quiet, releasing only two new songs in the past 12 months. Today, his most recent single, “Red Mercedes,” got the remix treatment from none other than Missy Elliott and British MC AJ Tracey.  

Missy’s a perfect fit for this track, which coasts by with almost the exact same type of off-kilter minimalism that her fellow Virginia contemporaries Timbaland and The Neptunes popularized fifteen years ago. She gets the first verse, staying on-topic with lines like, “Doors sit up like a facelift/Sub in my trunk go apeshit,” but even with her and Tracey’s strong showings, it’s Aminé who shines brightest, with bars like: “Missy like my auntie/Dreads like a palm tree/Girls give me shots when I play them Ashanti.”

Aminé’s about to play a big homecoming show sponsored by Red Bull in the PDX tomorrow night, and you can be sure that the “Red Mercedes” remix will go off like crazy. Hopefully, this release means that he’s gearing up to release his first full-length project since his “Caroline”-fueled breakout. While we wait though, be sure to revisit the northwest rapper’s 2015 precursor, the Calling Brio mixtape.