“To my future daughter or son/The streams from this album gon’ pay for your college funds,” he raps on “Fetus.” He’s also eager to reposition himself. Limbo isn’t exactly The Big Day, but he places more importance on being responsible and dependable, pondering what it means to be a better son and a potential father. On the opener, he raps, “Beat so cold it made Aminé want to open up,” and the album is reflective of that accessibility he sounds uninhibited. It would be an overstatement to call the album mature, but it does seem to exist in a transitional state between carefree youth (as embodied by Good For You songs like “Sundays” and “Yellow”) and real adulthood. He mixes subtle bouts of introspection with kooky references to Jim Carrey’s The Mask, Allen Iverson’s infamous “practice” speech, and the guy in the AllState commercials. The verses on Limbo are much more relaxed, the hooks are catchier, and his outsized personality radiates. The shock seems to have loosened something in him. To Aminé, the tragedy represented an unofficial start to his real manhood. (“That was like seeing Superman die,” he said.) On “Kobe,” Aminé’s friend, comedian Jak Knight, speaks of Bryant as a benchmark, his death a symbolic end of innocence.

Aminé’s shift was inspired at least in part, by the death of NBA icon Kobe Bryant.

Amine limbo wallpaper