Iann Dior is a 20-year-old rapper from Corpus Christi, Texas. He began his musical career using part of his name, his stage name eliminated Michael from Michael Olmo. It wasn’t until approximately the beginning of 2019 that he began using the alias Iann Dior. His music first gained traction amongst gamers and streamers on Twitch, connecting him with big name streamers and producers such as FaZe Banks, owner of gaming group FaZe Clan and Nick Mira, one of the hottest producers with a futuristic, emotional influence to his beats. This proved to be a killer combination as Iann’s first official releases on SoundCloud skyrocketed by millions. Iann Dior’s developing success is like no other.
His music seemed to resonate with younger audiences immediately. His first track, Cutthroat, produced by Nick Mira, broke into the New & Hot list on SoundCloud only a month after being posted. His music exploded without traditional advertising or marketing. Instead, video game streaming led the way. Nick Mira often creates loops and tracks live on stream for other producers and fans to follow along with. From collaborating and creating in this way, and creating a Discord for his fans, Iann’s music was being pushed to their audiences in real time. Fans could get sneak peeks and incredible VIP access to the process. From there, the Internet did its thing and FaZe Banks and other members of the streaming community caught on, playing his new, somewhat unreleased tracks on their streams. This was the rapper’s first big break.
The Texas rapper made one of the best decision he probably could early in his career: working with one of the most influential executive producers and A&Rs of the new age- Taz Taylor. Taz Taylor, owner of Internet Money, has proven to have one of the best ears for finding new talent. It appears this trio cannot be stopped. Since the success of Cutthroat, Iann has released two visuals and a handful of collaborations with other Internet Money artists such as PradaBaby and Bernard Jabs. Obviously, there was something special to him as an artist as he quickly picked up a feature from PNB Rock on his song ‘romance361’ and later, possibly controversial, King of Emo Rap: Trippie Redd for ‘gone girl’.
At this point in his journey, Iann Dior’s path appears to be the future for underground artists. Promoting music directly to your audience provides an artist a bond that labels can’t create. His supporters could see each of his moves as they occurred. They know about all the hard work and engineering that went into each of his tracks, videos, and photoshoots. This relationship, between an artist and fans, gave pop star Justin Bieber his start over ten years ago via YouTube and manager Scooter Braun. If Iann can keep up this momentum, there’s no telling where he’ll be a year from now.
