Amindi, the Luvr Girl

For her debut project, Nice, Amindi didn’t want to write about romantic love. “You know the Bechdel test? I wanted my project to pass the Bechdel test.” The Inglewood native had just gotten out of a relationship and she wanted to challenge herself to find another way to cope, outside of what she already knew would come easy for her.  “I’m so inclined to writing love songs, I’m a libra," she says matter of factly. So instead, Amindi wrote about all other kinds of love; love in friendship, love of self, even love of money, anything but love of men. 

In her next project, the mixtape Take What You Need And Then Some, she dips her toe in a little with a few songs. monte booker produced dopamine is a profession of love delivered with the same feel-good loopiness that the title suggests. In i thought you were different and it's not feeling good anymore, the rose tinted glasses that she saw her love interest through have slipped off. And her collaborative effort with MAVI: OK is a smoky anthem of lust and romance intertwined. Still, these songs make up a thin slice of a project that otherwise isn’t about romantic love. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OY8yZ2mX-Q

But with the just released Luvr, Amindi lets herself fully indulge. It is a six-track libra dreamhouse made up of love songs that explore longing, loss and desire. “Do I like you, yes indeed,” she opens the EP with a clear declaration of affection. “If I ain’t make myself too clear, I want you here with me…Got plenty of myself to spare, come take what you need,” she offers to her love interest. It’s a dreamlike introduction to the project, her delivery not unlike the hazy lilt she has in dopamine.   

Amindi’s songwriting is very straightforward. Whilst her delivery meanders into varying cadences, her lyricism is uncomplicated. “I write how I talk,” she confirms. “I try to use plain language as much as possible. I'm not trying to be heavy. My intention is always for people to feel me, to understand me, you know?” In the lone single from the EP, Passionate, she wants an ex-lover to understand that she is aware her feelings can get feverish; “My head is strong/I talk back and shit…and I’m mad at it/ I’m just passionate.” By being descriptive, she is able to use simple lyricism to paint a clear enough visual of her emotional state through the song. In Fine With Me, she once again puts the spotlight on the intensity of her feelings, against the backdrop of a simple make-your-head-bob bass chord on a loop. But unlike in Passionate, here she presents this intensity as a strength.  

Other songs in the EP turn their gaze outward and are less about her inner workings. Real Likely is a falsetto rumination of the feelings someone has for her. And in Kisses, she sings of a love lost; “To fuck with me is a luxury, you lucked out baby/ it sucks to see but you ain’t stuck with me, so get the fuck out baby.”  But even when she is closing the door on a love interest, she admits to having mixed feelings; “baby I miss it, I miss your kisses.” Instead of solely leaning on the righteous anger of feeling hard done by a love interest, Amindi chooses to combine it with the fondness that lingers even in the midst of anger- an honest illustration of what it feels like to let go. The closing track Lockjaw is more carnal. Here too, she does not beat around the bush; “soon as you clock off/ come get your rocks off.” 

Amindi meticulously curates a world for each project to exist in. Take What You Need’s release party took the form of an art gallery. She made 15 mirrors, one for each song, which she adorned to match the track’s sentiment. As people listened to the song, they walked around an  incensed room, and marvelled at the DIY art. Luvr too exists in its own world, with its own particular aesthetic choices. “In the first two projects I was bald and wore baggier clothes but with Luvr I have inches, I’m wearing short skirts and dresses and being a lot more feminine, intentionally so.” On Luvr’s cover image, Amindi stands before a background of 2000s inspired nail art, as she herself wears a similar style on her nails. This time she pairs her signature white tank top with low rise black shorts, fastened with a black belt whose buckle is a bedazzled Luvr. Her accessories: a belly ring that also spells Luvr, and lots of silver jewellery. The aesthetic choices are a nod to Y2K fashion, but more personally, they are a reflection of Amindi’s heart space. “I soften up a lot when I’m in love,” she starts before adding, “it’s easy for me to fall into a more masculine role when I’m dealing with men especially, and I don’t love that for me.”

Amindi stepped onto the music scene by way of smash dancehall hit Pine and Ginger, whose remix featured Jamaican stars Popcaan and Kranium. Both her projects were well received with hit songs like greenhouse and slideshow amassing millions of plays. She has toured with alternative music juggernauts Saba and Amaarae, and played at Coachella earlier this year before selling out her headline show at the Colours Hoxton in London. However you slice it, Amindi is already a successful artist. But this kind of astronomic success can make dating complicated for young women. She says, “because of the complexities of sexism, I'm always worried that I'm doing too much when I date men. I worry about them feeling small. I hate to say it, but I have a tendency to make myself smaller to appease whoever I'm dealing with romantically, which sucks.”  So, instead, she is presenting how she wants to be perceived in love as a way to “manifest someone that can handle [her] at [her] biggest, and softest.” 

The practice of aligning her eternal life with internal desires extends beyond her romantic world. Amindi was raised Christian but she no longer calls herself a Christian or even religious for that matter, but she still maintains a strong relationship with God. She lets me into Kind Records, a Spotify account with meditation resources including affirmation tapes, frequencies and journal prompts. “I made a huge playlist, that's like four hours and 14 minutes long with the most important ones to me and every morning I just put it on shuffle,” she says. Amindi has been doing this for the better part of 2024 and can now rely on the playlist to play exactly what she needs to hear; “one time I was in the tub and I was really stressed thinking ‘I need to get grounded’ and immediately I swear to God, a grounding affirmation came on.” Her very own internet sponsored divine intervention. 

The young multihyphenate aims to cultivate this sense of grounding when she writes too. Her routine is as follows: “I make sure I’m real cozy. I’ll smoke a bit of weed, something with a low dose like 10%-12% thc. My favourite is this sativa strain with ginger root, lemon balm and damiana.” She doesn’t mind people in the studio with her but you will likely find her in the corner of the studio, “laid down super quiet, with my blanket and sunglasses on. In that space it feels like God is talking to me and we’re having a conversation.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roe366q3KlA

Whether through an affirmation audio or song-writing, these rituals keep Amindi at peace because they offer her a sense of catharsis. The singer-songwriter’s penchant for tipping the scales back in balance is not only inline with her libra archetype, but it’s also a recurring theme in her music. Even in 50/50, a 2022 release track that is arguably her most despondent, she still aims for balance. She opens the track with; “This year, I went on tour/ The first one of my life…I been feeling so shitty/ Haven’t wrote a song in weeks.” And by the end she sings; “Never tried to make a hit track or be top pick/ But I’m here/ So for now, I’ll talk more shit.”  

Similarly, in Luvr, she is able to make space for both opposing feelings with ease. There is ambivalence and tenderness, repulsion and longing, and even uncertainty is followed by self-assuredness. "I think I just tend to be half full," she starts before adding, so even when I have those sad emotions, I know soon after that it'll be alright."