Rich Chigga kicks off 2018 with stage name change to Brian and new song ‘See Me’

Brian, formerly known as Rich Chigga, sporting a pink polo shirt and a fanny pack in the music video for “Dat $tick”.
Brian, formerly known as Rich Chigga, sporting a pink polo shirt and a fanny pack in the music video for “Dat $tick”.

Fans of Indonesian rapper Rich Chigga woke up to big news at the start of the year: that their satirical gangster rap hero had dropped a new song titled See Me, and that he was ditching the stage name Rich Chigga in favor of … Brian.

The rapper, whose real name is Brian Imanuel, will now go simply by his first name. Following “Dat $tick,” his 2016 viral sensation that both boosted his popularity and cemented his reputation as a satirical hip hop artist (even though Ghostface Killah declared the track to be “dope” and eventually featured it in a new mix), Brian has expressed his desire to be taken more seriously in the biz and felt his old name wasn’t helping.

Indeed, Brian has been mulling the name change for a while. In an interview with XXL Magazine published on September 2016, he said of the Rich Chigga name: “The name is something I came up with a long ass time ago and I didn’t know what I was doing. I know a lot of people are offended by it, but at the same time a lot of people don’t really care and fuck with it. I don’t think that it should matter that much but it’s understandable if it offends people. I’m definitely not making fun of hip-hop.”

Coinciding with the name change, Brian released See Me, which contains more personal lyrics than much of his previous rhymes. The song is slated to appear in his upcoming album, AMEN, which is out Feb. 2 worldwide.

Brian is arguably Indonesia’s most exciting musical export in recent years, but it remains to be seen if he will be seen as a satirical one-hit wonder or if his more serious approach will gain him even greater respect in the hip hop industry.




BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on