Kaytraminé: The Collaborative Album of the Summer

Written by Jenna Love, Photography by Lucas Creighton

This summer, you will find a perfect blend between electronic house and hip-hop alternative rap in a tasteful fusion of the brand new collaborative artist and self titled album, Kaytraminé. Like their artist duo name, this debut album is the perfect mend of Kaytranada’s groovy techno beats layered with Aminé’s signature style of alternative hip-hop complimented by his effortless flow. This album screams poolside party with a piña colada in hand, the album art depicting Aminé and Kaytranada smiling on two pink pool floats. If you like an effortless and witty rap-flow over electronic house beats, or just Aminé and Kaytranada in general, this album is definitely worth a listen. 

On May 15th, 2023, Kaytraminé released their debut single, “Rebuke.” The mellow, summer-y R&B vocals layered over the rhythmic, laid back, poolside beat is just a taste of the incredible album. The stand out track of the album  “4EVA” features Pharrell Williams. The remixed vocals over the four-on-the-floor punchy bass drum and the dreamy, electronic synths create an atmosphere that requires the listener to bop their head and shake their hips. Aminé’s rap verses stay true to his swagger-like flow, while Kaytranada compliments his quick rap lines with a groovy, afrobeat base layer. The intent of the breaks between the rap lines and the beat as well as the sweet remix vocals from Pharrell Williams led this to become one of the top tracks on the album.  

The relationship between Aminé and Kaytranada goes back all the way to 2014. Aminé released a remix of Kaytranada’s sample of “At All” that received 805,000 streams on Soundcloud. 9 years later, the collaborative artist and self-titled album, Kaytraminé stays true to their individual styles and reflects their personalities on every track. 

Kaytranada is a Grammy award winning Haitian-Canadian DJ, producer, and artist. He began to produce when he was 14 years old and guided him to drop out of high school to pursue music. Kaytranada has been establishing his signature style of house beats with Afrobeat, hip-hop, and funk influences. He signed to XL Recordings in 2014. Kaytranada released his debut album, 99.9% in 2016. In 2019, Kaytranada released his second album titled, Bubba. He uses samples and turns them into the masterpiece of head-bopping, hip-shaking, groove that makes the listener jump out of their seats. 

Aminé began his legendary career in 2014 by releasing two mixtapes. In 2016 Aminé released a monumental single, “Caroline”. This song hit number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single was then Certified Triple Platinum. He was then signed to Republic Records where he released two singles before his debut studio album Good For You in 2017. Then came albums OnePointFive in 2018 and then TwoPointFive in 2021.

Although the dynamic duo have unofficially been collaborating since 2014, the album Kaytraminé is just as vibrant and respectable as both the artists. The stylish fusion of Aminé’s signature hip-hop alternative rap complimented by Kaytranada’s recognizable funky house beats makes this album the collaboration of the summer. It’s uniqueness yet familiarity of both established artists makes Kaytraminé worth a listen this summer and a hope that there will be more prodigious releases from the duo in the future.