Imani Imani is The First Woman Signed to Kendrick Lamar's pgLang Label
And she just dropped her debut project 'Papercuts.' But who is she?
On Tuesday, June 2, pgLang announced its first female signee. That’s Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s company, and the woman is Imani Imani, and the way they announced it was by just dropping her album. No rollout. Eleven tracks, called Papercut, were out on a Tuesday, which was a bold move. But it was a move that allowed the album three days of chatter and buzz before the rest of the week’s releases caught up.
For four years, the roster was basically two cousins (Kendrick and Baby Keem) and rapper Tanna Leone. So the first woman they sign, the first artist whose whole instrument is her voice, is someone no one saw coming. It’s the most interesting move I’ve seen in a while.
Try to look her up, and the trail goes cold fast. Her name is Imani Ram; she used to go by Imani Selina, and before this week, she had zero monthly listeners on Spotify. Not a few. Zero. Her Instagram technically existed since early 2024, but most of the grid was added in the last couple of days. According to what we could find online, she hails from a small town in the Netherlands, and at one point called Amsterdam home.
If the voice rings a bell, you’re either super into fashion or super into Kendrick Lamar. Back in January 2024, an unreleased Kendrick song called “I Feel Something” played at Chanel’s couture show in Paris, and that was her on it. One of her own songs, “Snatch,” also opened the presentation. So she was scoring Chanel more than two years before she had a single track on streaming under her own name. Build it in private, say nothing, wait until the work can talk – that’s a winning formula when the music is just as good as the company you keep.
“Snatch” is on Papercut. So is “Mindgames,” which got the debut music video, directed by Keanna Williams and Neal Farmer.
I’ve had the album the same number of hours you have, so this isn’t a verdict. But my early read is: this is a great alternative-leaning R&B project that slips into cool pop (“Slideee”) and electronic sounds (“Come Together”) without losing its center. Looking at the credits reveals that she's worked with people like James Fauntleroy and Sam Dew on a couple of songs. But every song lists two names as producers and writers: Imani and her close collaborator, Daan Zinkhaan.
She’ll get explained eventually. The interviews & performances & co-signs are coming. For now, R&B has something rare: a real cold intro. Papercut is out wherever you listen. Play it before everyone tells you how to hear it.