Not long ago iann dior was putting out a song per week for his close mates, the unbridled recordings clocking tens of thousands of streams per week through word of mouth alone. It’s no surprise, then, that a few years on he’s caught the attention of some of the industry’s heaviest hitters.
Latest single Sick and Tired calls in the talents of Machine Gun Kelly and Blink-182’s Travis Barker – who also produced the track alongside Omer Fedi. The tune comes by way of 10K Projects (Trippie Redd, Aitch), who dior has been with since his debut mixtape nothing’s ever good enough last April.
Meet iann dior, the risen rap star whose collaborators already include Travis Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, Trippie Redd, and a score of your other heroes.
Sick and Tired isn’t what you’d call a breakout moment for dior, whose streaming numbers are already well into the hundreds of millions. Rather it’s a cementing of his stardom and a strong lead-in to his new EP I’m Gone, set for release this month.
The track is as slick, catchy, and on-scene as you’d expect; a magical melding of emo-rap and pop punk in which each collaborator’s style can be plainly heard. Barker’s flavour sits especially well in this dish, a far more natural fusion of their sounds than the pair’s previous collaboration (Darkside from 2019 album Industry Plant).
If this is your first attempt at dipping into the world of iann dior, or the first you’re hearing about him at all, Sick and Tired is as good a gateway drug as any. The young star’s style sits happily within emo-rap conventions, sporting story-driven lyrics over snappy beats and surly instrumental lines. It’s a succinct formula but one that dior treats with his own flair; adding a distinctly punk attitude – and even the odd riff – to the established recipe.
Talent seems to have come to dior effortlessly, his earliest days in music spent releasing a song per week under the name Olmo. With label backing he’s taken a shortcut to the top of the sphere, egged on by powerful endorsements from Barker, Trippie Redd, and plenty more.
“Anytime I hear a beat that I love, it’ll bring out the story I want to tell,” he says. “I’ll start humming the melody and the words will follow that—it’s all just whatever comes out of my head right in the moment.”
His two extended releases – debut mixtape nothing’s ever good enough and follow-up debut album Industry Plant – speak to an artist with plenty more in the can. There’s a frequency, instinct, and ambition permeating dior’s work that seems bottomless; a wellspring of hits that’s not going to dry up anytime soon.
Get around Sick and Tired above, and keep an eye out for iann dior’s upcoming EP I’m Gone sometime very soon.
Sick and Tired is out now via 10K Projects/Caroline Australia.
