Johnstown native working toward making a name for himself in hip-hop world

Dec. 22—A Johnstown native is rapping his way to a musical career.

Naeem Triplin ventured into the hip-hop world after his brother put him onto music that inspired him — from artists such as Kendrick Lamar; Tyler, the Creator; A$AP Rocky; and Childish Gambino.

"I started to like music," the 21-year-old Greater Johnstown High School graduate said. "I feel like I got more into it because I was in music classes at Johnstown. I was in band until I graduated. That was definitely a factor in why I started and why I have the interest in music."

Triplin, who performs under the name Eem Triplin, followed in his brother's footsteps and started making beats in his bedroom and uploading them to YouTube — where he quickly gained a large following.

"Up until this year, I was just making beats," he said. "That's where I feel being in band at Johnstown helped because I played percussion, and I feel like the percussion in my music is really the main source of it. That's where everything comes from."

Eventually, Triplin caught the attention of Florida rapper $NOT and became his producer and started traveling with him, learning more about the business.

But transitioning to a recoding artist from a producer didn't happened suddenly.

"I was always doing the rapping in between," Triplin said. "It wasn't until this year that it really took over. The beats started slowing down and then the rap stuff went up, because I kept going at it."

He said he started putting his raps out on his YouTube page and they were met with a positive response.

"I don't have a word for how I describe myself — it's still rap, but it's different because I'm harmonizing and it has a melody to it," Triplin said. "It's just me. It's things that I've gone through personally and where I'm at and how I felt at that moment. And that can be a heartbreak song or a happy song."

At the beginning of 2022, he released his first single "Awkward Freestyle," which has 31 million global streams and is consistently garnering 1.1 million streams per week.

Triplin has since released singles "If You Go" and "Let You Know" featuring $NOT.

He also preformed at Rolling Loud, which is billed as the world's largest hip-hop festival.

In addition, Triplin caught the attention of Drake, who played two of his songs on his Sound 42 SiriusXM radio show. He also did a guest mix for Sound 42.

"My message is to do you — focus on you and be yourself," he said. "That's the energy that I give off. I want to bring out confidence in people."

Moving forward, Triplin will be going out with rapper Lucki for a U.S. tour that kicks off in February.

He'll also be performing at summer festivals.

Triplin said he has plans to release his first album within the coming year.

"I want to keep things moving up and reaching a bigger audience," he said.

For more information on Triplin, visit his YouTube page at www.youtube.com/@EemTriplin, and follow him on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.