In 2020, just before the pandemic, Kendrick Lamar and his longtime business partner Dave Free launched their "multi-lingual, at service company" pgLang. Officially, pgLang is more than a record label — it's also a film production company, an ad agency, and maybe more — but it certainly has released records. Thus far, other than jointly releasing Tanna Leone's Sleepy Soldier with Def Jam in 2022, the company has mainly served as a repository for the music of Kendrick and his cousin, Baby Keem. But today, out of nowhere today, pgLang announced their latest artist signing and dropped that artist's debut album.
Not much information about Imani Imani is immediately available. Credits on her newly released album Papercut reveal her name is Imani Ram, and she's previously performed under the name Imani Selina. That's how she was credited on "I Feel Something," the unreleased Kendrick Lamar song that was featured in Chanel's Spring-Summer 2024 Haute Couture show back in January 2024.
Though the Imani Imani Instagram account dates back to exactly then, all but two of the images on its grid were posted within the last couple days. She has zero monthly Spotify listeners and no back catalog on the streaming services before today, and as far as I can tell she doesn't have a Discogs page under the names Imani Imani or Imani Selina. There is one credit for Imani Ram on a 2023 live album by the Dutch-Moroccan hip-hop artist Sef. Her close collaborator Daan Zinkhaan, who produced and cowrote every song on Papercut, also appears to be Dutch, as is Nicolas Kanza, a credited writer on a few tracks. Presumably Ram is Dutch too.
There have been rumors of Imani Selina's affiliation with pgLang since 2024, but the label did not officially announce the Imani Imani signing until today, while simultaneously releasing her album. It seems like a good fit. My first couple spins through Papercut have been great. She's working in a radio-friendly R&B milieu but weaving in ample pop and electronic elements from track to track. It's all artful, approachable, and extremely well crafted. I'd expect that from an album that also counts James Fauntleroy and Sam Dew in its credits.
Stream Papercut below and let me know what you think.
Papercut is out now on pgLang.
