The best way to describe how deeply Amine fell into obscurity for me after Good For You is through the fact that I had no idea that this album was coming out until after one of my friends had listened to it on Apple music. There just wasn’t much motivation to keep checking for Amine after Good For You had been so painfully average. With ONEPOINTFIVE he continues this streak of making even more painfully average music.
Amine seems to take a great deal of inspiration from Drake, as shown by songs like “Chingy,” “Blackjack,” and “Why?,” all of which have stylistic and instrumental parallels to Drake songs on If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late or Views. Sadly, Amine seems to lack the cult of personality that allows Drake to make such songs work, making those moody trap cuts feel more like copycats than interpretations.
Lucky for Amine, his own personality is what carries this album just above the mediocre line. Frankly, the kid is hilarious. “I’ll kill my sister if she ever models Fashion Nova” is possibly my favorite line on the album, though the skits at the end of some of the tracks are what got me through the album. Personally, I recommend the one at the beginning of “STFU2.”
That being said, personality can’t always carry a whole album if it isn’t accompanied by solid musical output, and ONEPOINTFIVE only offers occasional moments of musical strength. The chorus to “Shine” is glitzy and pretty, but the verses are white noise until the chorus comes back around. The same thing happens on “Ratchet Saturn Girl,” where the singing is great but doesn’t seem to fit with the song. Also, speaking of the singing, that may be the only place Amine has improved since Good For You, and is a skill he should utilize more in the future.
“Sugarparents” is possibly the only song on here that I would consider unskippable. Rico Nasty’s verse is crucial to the song. Her flow quickly surpasseses Amine, though they both tackle the subject matter in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way that makes it a great song. The instrumental is also very off-the-wall, which works well with Amine and Rico’s verses.
However, with the exception of the aforementioned song, a lot of this album is very forgettable and does nothing to petition for Amine’s relevance in a saturated genre. Unless the next album is something truly spectacular, I don’t see Amine conquering the one-hit wonder jabs. Jokes just can’t carry an album, I’m afraid.
Rating: 5.0/10
