After about fifteen months of silence, Ameer Vann, ex-member of BROCKHAMPTON, has returned to the music scene with a brand new EP. Many had believed he had left the industry for good, for all his social media had been deactivated and the details surrounding his departure from BROCKHAMPTON were quite muddled. However, behind the scenes, there was a lot of pseudo communication between Ameer fans and their beloved artist.

For at least ten months, dedicated listeners have been communicating with Ameer’s uncle via YouTube comments on his videos. It’s certainly unorthodox but it worked for some time now. Here’s a quote from Ameer’s uncle from two weeks ago. Before this, a fan had thanked him for putting up with all the comments on his videos asking about Ameer and asked about details for his eventual comeback. His uncle had this to say afterward:

Well. I just thank you all for supporting him and not believing everything you see or hear. We don’t focus on negativity in this family and always try to encourage him and each other. And when he looks at the comments section in my videos and sees the love, he knows how much you all still love him and he appreciates that. Stay tuned. You’ll be hearing from him.

Fans of Ameer clung to the last sentence and soon after on Sept. 9th his Instagram was reactivated. From there on after, only minor changes would occur things like him unfollowing people, deleting his photos, and taking BROCKHAMPTON out of his bio. This lead fans to believe that something new was coming soon. They were right.

On Sept. 16, 2019, Vann posted a photo of a sign on Hollywood Boulevard that read “Ameer Vann, Available now, Emmanuel.” Ironically at this time, Emmanuel was not available fans were only able to listen by switching their location to areas like New Zeland on Apple Music. Emmanuel would end up being Ameer’s first project since leaving BROCKHAMPTON was released just last night on all major streaming platforms. Along with this, a music video for the titular track was also released the very same night.

As for the music itself its radically different than anything Vann did with BROCKHAMPTON. The production isn’t poppy and melodic. It’s percussion focused and harrowing. The production owes itself to legendary producers, Hit-boy, G-Dav, and Cool & Dre. All of which are very prominent producers in the rap industry who have worked with very big names like Kanye West and Travis Scott just to name a few.

Vann also experiments with different flows and articulation on this EP. It still sounds like Ameer Vann but something has definitely changed. Chalk it up to it being a different studio, or perhaps age but this is without a doubt, a different side of Ameer fans are just barely being exposed to. The only thing that remains relatively similar is lyrical content.

Yes, Ameer still references drugs. However, as heard in the title track, Ameer has a lot to say about his departure from the old boyband. He even makes a few posthumous references to a few verses from his old BROCKHAMPTON days. It’s only fair considering the fact they’re very liberal about him on their own records.

Along with all of these developments, there have also been some setbacks. Vann’s alleged victim has taken to Twitter announcing her withstanding opinion on him. Many have been quick to typecase Ameer fans as abuse sympathizers with little to no understanding of what that actually entails. The BROCKHAMPTON community is also very split on the issue. Many complained about the BROCKHAMPTON subreddit because Ameer-centric posts were being taken down by the moderators.

It would seem Vann’s return is a divisive one. On one hand, you have those who simply want to support Vann and his creative endeavors. On the other, you have those who want to see him fall. Is it truly worth separating the artist from their art? Or is this indicative of a much bigger problem in the music industry? One can decide for themselves what spectrum they want to be apart of.

Emmanuel is available on most streaming platforms