Ozzy's one and a half year old first full-length An Eye Red is one of the albums that can be placed in the last decade's gold-sprayed fine shelf.
On it we meet a young, own, southern Swedish star with the kind, both beautiful and dirty, poetic vein that should be able to make people in both academia and on the street gape. With a rapping and bleeding, roaring voice that evokes the same min. Like the factory. Not to mention the time-consuming noises in scattered stellar echoes of his childhood East Africa. And that he names Astrid Lindgren and Charles Dickens. Ozzy is unique.
Anyone who has for years gathered their thoughts and life experiences for a kind of entrance, program explanation or shoutout knows at least part of what this young man from Malmö had inside him when he did his first major work.
Listen (again) and you hear the power. These are well-chosen words in a sometimes home-made language about bullying, crime, infidelity and the memory of Dad who died in the war in Somalia. Not infrequently with humor.
Surprised maybe no one. That Cismaan Maxamed (Ozzy's second name), who grew up in Rosengård with his mother and five brothers, was someone who wanted to go up and down, both teachers and friends could testify. The time when his friend Valon dragged him to the studio in the local Fryshuset had produced results.
The rest of the kingdom woke up when he heard for the first time among all established names who were guest in the Stress remix of the Cartel's AM43 in 2013. Followed by an engagement with Abidaz. Suddenly he had put both himself and a whole new Malmö scene with names like Guleed, Adam Aden, Valon and their creative collective Malmö New Wave on the map.
So how does he dance through life? After all the tributes and nominations for Grammis? Since last summer (when the music really should have been released) we have been talking about hearing what he, and the not-unimportant master producer DurimKid, did in their new studio out of town, by the sea. Have they taken on a new shumilak life? Or do they move in the universe that constitutes One Eye Red?
Well, at the new Sexan (named after a figure that recurs in his life) we meet an artist who has already proved himself. And that celebrates this by dressing their new stories in an overall more luxurious and base world. Without being so relaxed for that matter, both he and we fall asleep.
It is still the unique Ozzy that is all about. Like this time taking everything that made up the peculiarities of the debut and polished them up carefully and carefully. In the company of first class guests such as Ant Wan and Timbuktu.
As you know, Ozzy has many ways of expressing his voice and words. One of them is to say "May" and "daj" instead of me and you. Another is the scream and the lead-heavy rapping.
And the high notes. As on the first panther. On tracks like Opening Glaciers or previously released Ms. Fashionista and Play 66 (named after their own company), it seems modest in comparison. Here he raises roofs like never before with his voice.
And on RnB: iga Once (with Cherrie) and the crazy, robber-screaming sound mats in Loverman, where Fricky jumps in, he finally sings the love songs he longed for.
But still, it is strongest when he considers his past life. In Look at us, we hear him with his friends Guleed and Valon about life as an ICA boy outside the food hall where time is split between rap and the risk of going in for the crimes he makes money from. In FAB 44 (with Mwuana) it darkens a bit; "Black wings glow in the neighborhood, My brother he e black-clad at night". And at (my favorite) Rain Dance, he shouts with his incredible, skewed voice in the wet late hour with an equally hysterical, as fantastic, Dida who is excited about the whole ...
It's impossible to turn a blind eye to the fact that much of Ozzy's greatness shines at its best then - when it is heard both straight and raw. And that this page (do not forget the more cheerful but unbrushed MJ in this context) can take place in the sound park is wise. It contributes to Sexan becoming a strong and forward-looking continuation of the history of one of the great decades. And that it is fermenting with self-confidence of the well-deserved kind just makes it even better.