In all seriousness, or not: Eem Triplin is on the rise
Concert Preview: fans can catch Triplin as he opens for LUCKI on March 4 in Denver
“I’m so sorry there’s a lot goin’ on,” Eem Triplin says over the phone as the car he’s in starts blasting music. Within seconds the music shuts off and the musician repeats himself.
“I’m Naeem Triplin.”
Triplin, a 22-year-old rapper and music producer, describes his hometown of Johnston, Pennsylvania as, “boring, broke,” and “boring, poor,” and again, “boring, and poor.” His past year was underscored by a Tyler, The Creator co-sign and a radio placement on Drake’s SiriusXM’s show, Sound 42.
In the Pennsylvanian town with a little over 18,000 residents, Triplin’s production roots were found in his brother’s usage of Digital Audio Workspace (DAW) Fruity Loops (FL Studio). From there, the producer began creating his own beats and decided to put his work on YouTube.
“I was in the house just makin’ beats. That was life, music is life. It was a way to get my stuff out there and for a minute, I was just posting on Hipstrumentals. I would get my little views from there, but I was like ‘Eh, I can bring this to my channel and get my views there instead of giving some dude views’ – have a little portfolio you know?,” Triplin said.
Triplin would make beats for YouTube, but also for himself as he released his debut solo single “Cut Ties” on Aug. 5, 2018.
In early 2019, Triplin found Charlie Myles, a fellow producer.
“One time I sampled his stuff, I was tryin’ to come up. It’s weird, one day he hit me up not even on email, but a Soundcloud DM,” he states. Triplin had been using Myles’ samples without credit or clearance, but luckily Myles reached out to him out of caution as people might take Triplin’s beats without clearance or credit to Triplin.
“It wasn’t even anything like that, I was just tryin’ to make music, but I did send him a couple hundred dollars to make up for what I owed him.”
Triplin says that after this, they started working and Myles sent him samples.
“I thought ‘these were so hard’ but it wasn’t until after a year of working with him that I found out that it was him singing. Once I found that out, it was a go,” Triplin said.
He claims that a lot of his music that’s becoming popular now are beats that were made with Myles in 2019. Triplin would continue to work on his solo and YouTube endeavors but also attracted the attention of popular 300 Entertainment rapper $NOT in 2020. Triplin would go on to work with $NOT and produce hits such as “Revenge”, “STRANDED *” and “Benzo”.
He describes working with $NOT as “smooth.”
“It’s been smooth, you know, it don’t feel too out of reach. We just make organic s—,” Triplin states.
The tracks highlight Triplin’s illustrious production style: catchy, perfectly tailored to highlight the essence of who’s on the microphone and a bit lo-fi, but with a bite that has captivated audiences worldwide.
Before Triplin and $NOT could collaborate as individual artists on a track together, Triplin saw over 32 million Spotify streams on his viral March 2022 hit, “AWKWARD FREESTYLE,” and it took him to new heights as Eem Triplin, a solo artist. The song samples Tyler, The Creator’s 2013 track, “Awkward.”
Tyler, The Creator would then co-sign the track by commenting his approval on Our Generation’s Music’s Instagram post that emphasized the virality of the song.
Though, and with a seemingly exponential growth pattern, Triplin took to Rolling Loud New York’s stage in September of 2022 to greet an audience of 13 people. To which, Rolling Loud sent Triplin an Xbox as consolation.
“They sent me the Xbox, and I was like ‘this gotta go on the net.’ I posted it and it did what it had to do,” he says as his voice turns into a jokingly mocking voice. “I ain’t mad at it. A lot of people was like ‘ooh I’m gonna get embarrassed’ but I didn’t care.” He then goes on to talk about walking on stage to seeing “nobody,” as he puts it.
“It felt like a normal show. I did a little show the night before that, I opened up for Lil Tecca and there was a lot more people. I was like ‘shoot’ there’s less pressure, I ain’t feel no type of way,” Triplin states.
Seven months later, Triplin began teasing the collaborative track he did with $NOT titled, “LET YOU KNOW.” Within days, Drake and 21 Savage were playing Triplin’s tracks on Drake’s SiriusXM Show, Sound 42 before the actual release of the collaboration.
2022 panned out to be a stellar year for the rapper and producer and he only has more planned.
His production flow is not “any sort of way”, as Triplin puts it. He likes to open up samples from Myles, find the right drum pattern and put it together piece by piece.
He ushered in 2023 with his track “WALKED IN”, which is fit enough to make anyone feel like they’re ready to take on a goated NBA 2K team. On this track, he took a step back from producing and let producer Sauron take the wheel.
Despite the seriousness and social media coined vibe of his work, which can be described as “sad boi,” Triplin takes to social media in a way that many may compare to meme accounts.
“I just be havin’ fun with it. I was always around posting memes and being funny because s— don’t be that deep,” he says as he mumbles ‘I don’t know.’
“It’s about having fun and not being ‘too cool for school’ with it,” he mentions and adds that if people want seriousness, they can go listen to his music.
2023 is looking to be a truly exciting year for Triplin; the rapper plans to make an appearance at both Rolling Loud California in March and Rolling Loud Portugal in July. Although, he mentions that he’s happy with the rate at which things are going.
Fans can catch Eem Triplin in Denver at the Summit Music Hall as he is opening for LUCKI’s Flawless Like Me: The Made Martian Tour on Saturday, Mar 4.
