Winning fans with his playful personality and self-produced soundscapes, Eem Triplin is one of rap music’s most promising rising stars. Listening to the devil on his shoulder for a flex-heavy banger, the Johnstown City, PA native drops off “WALKED IN,” his latest single. Produced by Eem himself, “Walked In” benefits from an immersive instrumental that mixes bells that chime like a submarine radar with a bass deeper than the Mariana Trench. Eem swims through the hazy atmosphere with his signature rasp, piecing together flexes into infectious earworms: “I went from rags to riches/B*tches you had, I had them b*tches/I’m the only n***** from my f*ckin’ city runnin’ up a milli on my business.” “Walked In” continues a heroic run of singles from the 21-year-old artist, most recently following “LET YOU KNOW,“ a Pitchfork-praised collaboration with his close friend $NOT.
“WALKED IN” is the latest rung in Eem’s rise up the rap ladder, fueled by a mixture of strong music and a knack for going viral. Born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a community of roughly 18,000 located near Pittsburgh, Eem started his career as a producer, creating and selling beats online, producing songs for artists like $NOT and T9ine, including the latter’s fan favorite tracks “BENZO” and “Revenge.” Eem’s success as a producer fueled his desire to become an artist in his own right. His career as an artist kicked into high gear when he shared “AWKWARD FREESTYLE,” a self-produced, personality-filled song that used elements of Tyler, The Creator’s 2013 song “Awkward.” The song quickly went viral, inspiring thousands of TikTok creations, generating millions of streams on all platforms, and eventually reaching the ears of Tyler himself, who gave the song his enthusiastic co-sign.
“AWKWARD FREESTYLE” generated over 20 million streams across platforms, and fans intrigued by the song quickly found that Eem had a full catalog of similarly vibey highlights to choose from, including singles like “Louie V” (10 million+ Spotify streams) and his latest track “JUST FRIENDS?” (10+ million streams since its early September release). In Fall 2022, Eem made his first festival performance at Rolling Loud New York, performing in front of a sparse crowd but making sure that the folks in the crowd would remember him forever (even if they forgot their own names in the process). Over the holidays, Eem drew the attention of his local paper, The Tribune-Democrat, who profiled the local hero and captured his community’s excitement about his success. Catch Eem supporting LUCKI on his “Flawless Like Me: The Made Martian Tour” later this year.
With hundreds of thousands of streams on his catalog per week, the 21-year-old Eem Triplin’
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