📍ACL Live Moody Theater — Sept. 30, 2025
Written by Krysta Ayers

I had been trying to see Aminé for years. The Portland-native has been to Austin before, playing Emo’s in 2018 and Stubb’s in 2022, but the stars never aligned for me to attend a show until Tuesday night.

Aminé’s an artist who is in a lane of his own, and his Tour de Dance performance was a spectacular display of his talent, creativity, and eruption of any imaginary boundaries in the hip-hop genre. While hip-hop and rap are still working out the kinks (barely) of their historically misogynistic bars and too-cool-to-care attitude—after a shift from the more educational, let’s-get-real rhymes of KRS-One and Public Enemy—Aminé is on stage as a student of previous MCs, adding a signature touch of his own braggadocious, “weird” Portland style. This creative space he’s entered has been paved by the likes of Andre 3000 and, more recently, Tyler, the Creator, but Aminé is doing things on his terms.

The show opened up with Aminé’s frequent producer and collaborator, Lido (“13MOS,” “Charmander”), and ACL Live was suddenly a club. Lido played only the feet-moving, head-bopping R&B and hip-hop tracks that provided a mellifluous segue into Aminé’s set. The energy was at its boiling point; we were ready for our main act.

Aminé came out swinging with the bass-heavy track, “Arc de Triomph,” off his sixth studio album, 13 Months of Sunshine. (I’m including his Kaytraminé project in that count.) In the song, he tells us he’s an “MC first, and Portland native,” and it won’t be the first time he reminds us of where he comes from; his ancestry, and his ability to honor it, is an important theme in the new album. And when we get to the chorus, we all join to shout: “Question! The fuck you be on?”

He gives us teasers with his setlist, playing the abridged version of every track so that he can fit 31 songs during his set. He danced around stage with boundless energy, kicking his feet behind him and running from edge to edge. He also had two calls and responses that he and his DJ, MadisonLST, used throughout the night to keep us engaged and interactive. When they say, “You’re beautiful,” we respond with, “I know.” And when they say, “Thirteen months of,” we say, “sunshine.”

Aminé performs his pick of songs from his already expansive catalog, giving us “sossaup” and “4EVA” from his album with Kaytranada—with sexy, house percussion and hi hats that demand hips be in motion—as well as “WHY,” “Vacay” and “Riri.” He plays “Yellow” and reminds us that he’s “humble when I’m blunt / but I gotta go hard,” which is a dichotomy he’s been straddling his entire career: staying a humble Oregonian, “no matter what happens / stay grounded on both feet” (“Be Easier on Yourself”) and leaning into the braggadocious nature of hip-hop with lines like, “too rich for the chit chat” (“Mad Funny Freestyle”).

The setlist also includes “Contemplating” and “Woodlawn” from his Limbo album, which elicits more energy from the crowd as we rap along with him. We get “REDMERCEDES” and “Shimmy” and then a rare moment of Aminé sitting on a barstool to rap “DR.WHOEVER”—which, thankfully, kept the Ricky Thompson voice-intro saying, “Sad on your motherfuckin’ B-day?!”

He continues to keep things positive on stage. His smile is big as he takes a beat to look at the crowd and take everything in, taking the mike to say, “You’re beautiful,” and waiting for us to respond, “I know.” He takes a GoPro for certain songs and produces a live-stream of himself rapping with the crowd behind him, on the large three-screen box set up on stage.

The show is bookmarked with another go at “Arc de Triomphe,” so we can all shout “The fuck you be on” before we call it a night. And the last call and response of the night? A shout of “Free Palestine” that he signals to do again, louder.

There’s a palpable hesitation to leave the venue—we were loose and dancing, ready to continue the club vibes and spend the rest of his discography with him, no matter the appetizer-length of each track we were given. Aminé came ready to have fun with us, share his musical journey, and burst the bubble of hip-hop the best way he knows how: with color, boldness, and a swelling of danceable beats.