We listened to "Qalf Infinity", Damso's brilliant new album

He lands there, Damso.

Above the fight.

Or next to it.

Except in any case.

This Wednesday April 28 (nod to the release date of his best-selling album released four years ago, "Ipseïté"), the gifted French rap artist unveils eleven new tracks, where all the other albums are usually posted on Friday.

He, as usual, imposes his rhythm, calm, peaceful, with his deep and calm voice.

Eight months after his eagerly awaited album Qalf (a “masterclass” to (re) listen to, sold 168,000 copies), the artist returns with a fourth opus, “Qalf infinity”, the most successful of an already royal discography.

From the first notes of this new project set up with his loyal team (Prinzly, Ikaz Boi, Jules Fradet, Ritchie Santos), one thing is clear. The Belgian most listened to in his country, ahead of Angèle, creates a space free from the dictates of the recording industry and the effects of fashion. Music and the pen take precedence over form. Rappers come out of

"

mixtapes

"

dozens of songs to garner the numbers in streaming?

Dem's (his nickname among his relatives and his fans) unveils a narrower sound journey of 37 minutes, which he took a year to mix in the studio, precise like a goldsmith who finishes his crown.

The artist, fan of free-jazz, does not forbid himself anything, surfs in the middle of different styles of music, as in the excellent title “Morose” where a saxophone then piano solo follows a demonstration of rap technique.

Again disillusioned in love

"The game I'm going to fuck his mother", he warns in his deep voice from his first song "OG", carried with a set of choirs behind him.

From the second track "Vantablack", Damso gives a clear and precise answer to those who thought that the rapper, in love as he told himself in the romantic "9-1-1", would no longer do "dirty", understand rap believed.

Again disillusioned in love, he talks more about his thrusts than his crushes in the flashes of writing of which he has the secret.

"Humanity killed in the bud, equality between man and girl, it's the 69"

To read also For fans of Damso, "his texts have meaning"

In "Dose", softer atmosphere, he becomes more introspective: "Why my life becomes the one I wanted, money money in the pocket, they want my skin, my coils (

Editor's note: my money

), yet I have nothing wrong ”. Of his status as a rap star, there is also a lot of question in this new album, as in “Deux Diamonds” in which he thanks his audience for their loyalty. “One, two, ten, a hundred diamonds, it still shines. Thank you for the moula

(Editor's note: the money

) ”.

But if he sees his success as a blessing, he also talks about the changes in behavior around him.

"You love me for what I have become so you love me for what I am not, you left and then came back to friends like you I don't want any", he blurted out coldly in "The Vie Radio".

A musical uppercut

Finally, the poignant “Passion” looks back on his entire career, step by step.

Surgical.

He even comes back soberly on the helping hand of "Kopp", understand Booba, he who had spotted him to sign him to his label "9.2i".

Far from the clashes that he considers a waste of time as he confessed to us during our meeting in September in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

“The more I advance in my social rank, the more I retreat in my social life”.

Poetic, frank and unadorned, in “Vivre un peu”, he ends with this observation: “It's very strange when you become richer than people, we only see you as a solution”.

PODCAST.

Kinshasa, the war, the street… who is hiding behind Damso, an open-hearted rapper?

Conclusion?

This new delivery, of which he is the main conductor (there is only one collaboration with his little protégé YG Pablo, on the track "Chialer") is a musical uppercut.

An unidentified object to the many readings he first unveiled during a live on his Instagram account this Wednesday evening.

At only 28 years old, he confirms that he is a major artist of the French speaking scene, all styles combined, thanks to his pen soaked in acid.

The artist who has never communicated much, miserly in music videos (for his last album, he had produced only one, "9-1-1" with Noémie Lenoir) today delivers his project on more exciting.

Because he is told there in unvarnished intimacy.

And that he manages to surprise without betraying himself.

EDITOR'S RATING: 5/5