Wall Street Journal <\/em>profile puts it, Ian remains a hip-hop fascination because he seems to be the first to sprout from the new generation of artists born entirely on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\tWhile much (perhaps too much) has been made of the racial optics around Ian\u2019s rise, it\u2019s his function inside the meat-grinding churn of viral content that proves more instructive. Since first making waves with 2024\u2019s \u201cFigure It Out,\u201d Ian has maintained an ambient online presence, appearing on livestreams with creators like Plaqueboymax and dropping interviews of varying seriousness with podcasters and content creators across the web. Throughout, he has maintained a relentless touring schedule. There he was at Lollapalooza playing maestro to a mosh pit of Gen Z-ers. In between it all, he\u2019s been able to rack up the requisite clout tokens: A picture with Drake, a Lil Yachty feature, content collabs with the buzzing London-based painter Slawn, even a dustup with Tyler, the Creator, who criticized Ian\u2019s whole schtick in an interview last year. Whatever you think of the music, Ian\u2019s rise is distinctly modern, an example of the myriad avenues and platforms required to maintain relevance in today\u2019s algorithm-driven culture.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut what about the music? For the past few months, Ian has been teasing his latest mixtape,\u00a02005<\/em>, which takes its name, presumably, from the year of his birth. The project makes several attempts at striking gold by building on well-trodden formulas. \u201cYou Told Me\u201d offers a clean-cut rendition of the lovelorn pathos of Juice Wrld and\u00a0808s<\/em>-era Kanye, though it falls short of resonating beyond the surface. \u201cRemember Me\u201d feels like a peak 2010s rap-R&B crossover replete with clunkily delivered lines about a tortured romance. \u201cBitch you think you crazy, you gon\u2019 find out,\u201d Ian growls. \u201cHow come when I actually fell in love, it wouldn\u2019t come back to me?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tFor all of Ian\u2019s vocal abilities \u2014 he manages to suffuse his bars with a gristly whisper \u2014 it becomes monotonous fast. Like with his closest contemporary, Yeat, it\u2019d be naive to think listeners come to Ian for bars. But where Yeat makes up for ultimately hollow songwriting with a healthy amount of brooding world-building, Ian offers us less to grasp onto. Mainly because he doesn\u2019t really have much to say. Not only in the sense of him being a lackluster lyricist, but even in the atmosphere of the music. It all strikes the same note. <\/p>\n
\n\tTake \u201cHave My Back,\u201d where he offers as close to a thesis as we get across the project. The song has the underdog bravado you\u2019d expect from a young up-and-comer, but ultimately feels like a generic pump-up anthem, almost forgettable by design, in the way that background music at the gym bleeds into high BPM nothingness. For an artist so young, Ian appears surprisingly averse to risk-taking, draping himself instead in the armor of a hip-hop swagger that so clearly isn\u2019t his native tongue. The result is a nine-track retreading of A\/B-tested sounds that land just above the threshold of listenability.<\/p>\n
\n\tIan suffers from an affliction that seems widespread among the pandemic generation: Aura Anxiety,<\/em> or a palpable fear of being \u201ccringe,\u201d lest one lose precious \u201caura,\u201d that indefatigable catchall for a person\u2019s vibe. Aura exists in the mind\u2019s eye, a representation of what you might look like observed through the lens of a video shared online. It is, of course, wrapped up in the paranoia of being the most surveilled generation that has ever existed. \u201cThe way the internet moves, everybody has to make you out to be whatever they want you to be,\u201d Ian told the Wall Street Journal<\/em>. \u201cI understand why people might believe I\u2019m here for jokes and virality. But I\u2019m not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n\n\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tI don\u2019t envy members of Ian\u2019s cohort, forced to grapple with a social media panopticon made worse by feeds that\u2019ll forget about you just as fast as they catapult you to stardom. You can sense a heightened level of self-awareness, teetering on paranoia, in Ian\u2019s promo for the mixtape. Ahead of its release, he shared a clip on Instagram of him performing as a country act, complete with a full-blown music video, a play on the critique of artists like Post Malone who rode into stardom on the back of hip-hop only to pivot to country music later on. Thankfully (or not?) it was all just a skit, a way of signaling that Ian, too, is aware of the ways he might be perceived. Except, who exactly is the joke for?<\/p>\n
\n\tThere\u2019s more pressure than ever to find a unique hook to keep people\u2019s attention online. For Ian, the suburban white kid thing has run its course. Perhaps he should pivot to country, a genre in which he honestly doesn\u2019t sound too bad; then we might gain some insight into who he actually is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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