Writer Tom Cameron breaks down OsamaSon new rage infused album
The young rapper’s second record this year lives up to its name. In a time where 808s are more fried and filthy than ever, Osama provides perhaps the most alien and distorted style of rage rap
A wall of pure distorted noise, the sonic equivalent to a deep fried mars bar dipped in battery acid. This was the first impression I had of Psykotic’s opening track, ‘Habits’. I was immediately hooked. The rest of the record similarly drew me in. Unintelligible gibberish gliding over beats cooked up by chronically online teenagers with attention deficits, artwork that has people clutching prayer beads, it’s just another day in the office for OsamaSon. Welcome to post-covid rap, it’s not for the faint of heart.
The last 2 years in the underground spotlight haven’t been kind to young Osama. After gaining notoriety in the scene with his 2023 tapes, it didn’t take long for clone allegations to kick in. ‘The production carries’, and Ken Carson were extremely common in online discourse around him, so much so Ken was rumoured to refuse working with any producer with ties to him.
With this and a rumoured lawsuit involving his deluxe artwork and legendary band Iron Maiden, Osama was dragged through the mud. They say once it’s on the internet, it’s there forever, and this proved true with him. Osama’s entire digital footprint got found, from corny TikTok thirst traps to.
Like many in late 2023, I was sceptical towards OsamaSon. The young rapper had just established a name for himself within the underground with copious amounts of young people (myself included) drawn in by his fun hooks, and a fast and loose approach to rage. But with it came the inevitable question, “is anything from him really that original?”
It’s not exactly unheard of for a young artist’s early works to wear their inspiration on their sleeves, but in the modern culture of underground, you can and will be berated for it. For Osama, Ken Carson was his clear inspiration, and kids slated it for him a fair amount – it got so bad that there were rumours that Ken had blacklisted Osama’s main collaborator and producer Wegonebeok from ever working with him.
On top of that, Osama’s cover arts sparked the classic debate of “at what point does paying homage fall into rip-off territory?” with every record art so far paying heavy homage to pre-existing records. With his deluxe cover for his 2023 effort ‘Flex Musix’ though, it’s obvious that things got very lazy, so much so that Iron Maiden had apparently threatened to sue him and his team for blatantly just editing their artwork.
But between this and his latest effort, ‘Psykotic’, Osama’s turned up the volume even more, with each track sounding like it was deep fried in the kitchens of hell. Pyskotic carried this on, it’s one of the filthiest records in this lane – alien, unhinged, and is as catchy as it is deafening.
From the second you hit play, opening track ‘Habits’ brutally assaults your ears with what sounds like an amp having a seizure. It’s perhaps the filthiest and most chronically online magic trick I’ve seen an artist do this year, but it works.
Now don’t let the alien nature fool you, the devil really isn’t in the details. Part of rage raps charm for many is it’s simple, densely layered and chaotic nature. You don’t have to understand what these kids are saying to understand the vibe and energy they’re trying to get across.
With most of these tracks you can spot the big appeal within the first few seconds; whether it be the blatant Pi’erre Bourneisms of ‘she woke up’, the upbeat and high pitched synths of achievement with ‘Victory Lap’, or sentimental ‘In It’. The latter of these is definitely ‘In It’, a mushy track that shows how even within all the fried soundscapes, these artists can still find room for mushy sentiments about girls they like.
The only feature found here, unsurprisingly, is Che. After they bought out the craziest of each other on their last collab ‘HELLRAISER’ the duo teaming up again was a nobrainer. And as you’d expect, they push FL studio to the limits. They’re a match made in hell. While it’s very similar to their last effort, hearing a teenager with guy-liner chant absurdities like “I’m like Marylin Manson” doesn’t get old. My biggest concern with this record, however, is at what point does the sound reach it’s natural conclusion? At what point do you throw records like these with powerelectronics and noise-rock? Rage is a relatively young genre, so in the present, it’s great seeing what young artists are doing with it, or not doing with it. But one has to ask, at what point is enough enough? But for the time being, I don’t care. It’s catchy and fun but not for the faint of heart. It’s often said these underground shows can be ridiculous. And in the absurd world we live, kids learn to embrace it.
Perhaps the weirdest stand-out on the record is the track ‘Function’, it’s the first time Osama’s pitched his vocals to such and extent. It’s weird, And it doesn’t work very well. It resembled something more akin to digicore. It just feels unnecassary.
The best on the tracklist however, for me, would have to be ‘yea i kno’ containing one of the most uplifting synth leads imaginable. You can’t really understand a thing Osama’s saying, but it comes with such a pleasent and layed back demeanor that you can’t not understand the vibe of it.
Psykotic acts as the current testiment to ‘what are the kids doing these days’. They’re all on some sort of medication, with attention deficits, grew up terminally online and gained access to software like FL Studio as teenagers. The result is messy, structureless, charming and above all, it’ll give anyone under 40 a heart attack.
