Corpus Christi, TX · emo-rap · alt-pop

iann dior

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Melodic emo-rap that crossed fully into pop-rock without much fuss about the line — chart ubiquity with a scene kid's heart.

iann dior, born Michael Ian Olmo in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, grew up mostly on rap, picked up some Spanish-language music from his mother, including Marc Anthony, and heard early rock through his father's love of Jay-Z and bands like The Fray. After losing a job at UPS in 2019, he began recording on SoundCloud.

His first song, "Cutthroat," has drawn more than five million plays. Seven more tracks, including "Emotions," followed and were gathered into his 2019 debut mixtape, Nothings Ever Good Enough. He then signed with 10K Projects and released his debut album, Industry Plant, the same year, led by "What is Real," "Gone Girl" with Trippie Redd and "Strings" with Gunna.

His songs pair sung, heavily melodic vocals with trap production and guitar-leaning arrangements, a style commonly grouped under emo rap, though by 2020 he was pushing further into pop-punk territory alongside Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker on the track "Sick and Tired."

That year's EP, I'm Gone, also included "Prospect" with Lil Baby. Its momentum was overtaken by his feature on 24kGoldn's "Mood," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and remains his only entry on that chart. He continued working with Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Barker and other figures from that rap and pop-punk crossover, and released a second album, On to Better Things, in 2022.

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emo-rapalt-pop