On ian’s introduction to the world, 2024’s Valedictorian, he played the shy and excited white kid obsessed with hip-hop. To boot, the album art captured the young Dallas upstart wearing an outfit that scanned as something one would wear to cotillion at the local suburban country club. On 2005, he sets out to prove he’s more than the game’s token white kid. Named after the year he was born, 2005 finds the rapper more comfortable in his own voice, more willing to take shots at the people who have laughed at him in the past. On opener “Go Ian,” he employs a Drake-inspired half-sung, half-rapped flow and practically taunts: “Y’all only fucking with ian ’cause he handsome/Really hate that pretty motherfucker with a passion.” On “Have My Back,” which features a beat that recalls the early-2020s Atlanta trap era, ian reminds himself that friends will come and go but it’s always family over everything: “I don’t have friends, but I got my momma.”