It’s an album that arrived as a surprise, and as a reward for the fans. The rapper Damso released, Friday November 15, I lied, a record with the most diverse rhythms, in which he opens up a little about his darkness and the complexities of his personality. I lied, because he had loudly announced that his last record would not be released until May 30, before he put an end to his recording career.
So he lied. In the music industry, it’s not that often that we admit it, between retirements constantly postponed, concerts multiplied for financial reasons or refusal to admit that we are at the end of the cycle. With Damso, at the top of hip-hop for a decade, we are elsewhere.
The Belgian rapper will be 33 years old when he releases his last album, on May 30, an age in keeping with the almost Christ-like love he arouses among his fans. With him, almost no interviews. The last one he granted at the beginning of the year to RTBF: “I take my time, I revisit, I create. I believe that the more I advance, the more I have to take my time. I could easily throw out lots of sounds, but without life. Reinventing myself always takes more time because it requires me to experience things.”
In I lied, there is a lot of life. With the rapper Kalash Criminel, born like him in Kinshasa, in DR Congo, he sings in Lingala. With Kalash, a Martinican rapper, he tries shatta, a very fashionable music. And everywhere else, Damso imposes varied rhythms, between haunting flow and raw lyrics, between dance and beautiful ballads, notably with the one he helped launch, a certain Angèle.
But this album, which should have included fewer titles, like a comma before the end point next May, Damso released it for his impatient fans. It was announced by surprise and recorded in a very short time in Brussels. Still at RTBF, he said he was lucid about expectations: “I know they’re mad at me, but it’s for the good of everyone. First of all, it’s for my own good, honestly. I’m starting from the principle that I’m ready for someone not to love more tomorrow, if I’m no longer successful, I’m no longer successful, but I would have been sincere with myself and the people who listened to me would have understood that it was someone who shared his sincerity. “
And without completely reinventing himself, Damso gives himself away, sometimes intimate, musically very to the point, always pioneering trends. I lied yes, but admitted fault, for once, totally forgiven.
