Damso is one of the true “Dark Lords” of French rap. Already on the album Lithopédion, which came before QALF, he addressed the end of his career in the track William, one of the project’s closing songs: “Last album or maybe not, life will tell us”. In QALF, his latest release, announced well before signing with Booba and therefore before his debut album Batterie Faible, the artist appears more optimistic than usual.
Musically, Damso explores new paths and adopts a more open mindset. He pays tribute to his son in Deux Toiles de Mer and addresses love with tenderness in Le Cœur en Miettes. Has the dark rapper rediscovered a taste for life? This is the same artist who, in one of his early tracks, Amnésie, intensely described the suicide of one of his exes, whether real or fictional. This track, built on a sample from Cortex, was removed from platforms not for its dark subject matter but due to copyright issues. Damso makes a striking comeback with Chrome, the first single from his project J’ai menti, a title that, for several reasons, lives up to its name. Damso stays true to his method, dropping hints and enigmas before each release.
Damso is “in chrome”!
Like many contemporary singles, Chrome is split into two distinct parts. The instrumental production is by Prinzly, a renowned Belgian beatmaker highly sought after, working with prominent figures in Belgian rap like Hamza and, of course, Damso himself. On QALF, Prinzly contributed to several tracks, including Life Life, BXL Zoo featuring Hamza, Deux Toiles de Mer, and Cœur en Miettes. Chrome was recorded at Studio Planet, under the direction of long-time collaborator Jules Fradet.
The first part of the track stands out with a striking minimalist instrumental. Damso delivers lines interspersed with pauses: “Martin, Malcolm, Thomas, few OGs dare to do things”. He pays homage to major figures of resistance: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Thomas Sankara, all of whom met tragic ends. Zed from 13 Block also honored Malcolm X in his track and album Malcolm.
In the second part, darker and closer to what Damso has been doing since Ipséité, the Brussels rapper goes into ego-trip mode, dropping provocative punchlines such as: “Bro, you haven’t even blown up and people already say you rapped better before”.
The cinematic visual for Chrome is directed by Christophe Deroo, filmmaker of the sci-fi feature Hall des Pendus, an artist who rarely collaborates with rappers.
