Kaos
Karma

With his third and final album, he finally manages to reach Nirvana, after settling his Karmic debt. The image on the album cover perfectly synthesizes the completion of this action. A delicate little bird, a symbol of the soul ready to take flight, perched on barbed wire, like the one the artist has tattooed on his skin, and which has always been his emblem. Those who know the stylistic elements and themes dear to Kaos might also see in this photo the internal conflict between two forcibly coexisting feelings. His lyrics are scattered with symbolism referring to opposing forces clashing, like day and night, Yin and Yang rather than good and evil, opposites like some instrumentals, poignant and melancholic, that ignite on his rough and dirty voice, pressing and breathless.

Seven years after the second LP, Karma is the album of Kaos' artistic maturity and represents his musical testament. To be honest, when rereading some lyrics from "L'Attesa" today, it's clear that even back then, in '99, there was a desire to leave the microphone and abandon the scene. One example is the chorus of "Oltre La Fine:

"You can already count me among the absent, these are the last moments,
from here on out I am out of the fights... happy?
My mission is now complete,
we'll see who will be right only beyond the end."

Let's start with the album itself. Rigorous self-production, distributed by TrixShop. We begin to notice the fabulous graphics of the cardboard by the good old uncle DeeMò. We then find that the team of producers is completely new, except for the intro entrusted to Ahmad (an old acquaintance of M&M memory). The lion's share is taken by Donjoe, who grabs as many as 7 productions, followed closely by Shablo with 4 while Mace and Dj Argento finish with one each. The respective styles blend well with that of Kaos, so much so that with repeated listens (I haven't done much else lately...) the impression of homogeneity doesn't diminish. This brings us to one of the strong points of the album: the level travels at exactly the same (high) altitude from start to finish. Claro, it's not that Kaos has gotten us used to anything different, but this is further proof that the warrior tears down 100 percent, always. As for the features, here too there's a closing of the circle (?!): from his last partners in rhyme Turi and Moddi, to the new Club Dogo, the first Colle der Fomento, and let's not forget the presence of Trix, celebrated by a track all for him ("D.C.V.D."). Let's talk about the lyrics. What to say? The weapons are always the same: words filtered through 20 years of Hip-Hop, in the underground, on rough stages around the boot, behind the turntables pushing real music and not the album of the month, with fingers on the spray can, in the crates of the most unknown records, in studios, behind microphones, on the street. Disillusionment leads to a bitter aftertaste, which this time is not tempered by the sarcastic vein that had emerged in Melma e Merda and that had followed; here we return to the seriousness of Fastidio... if you like it's the difference between "Pulp Fiction" and "Old Boy". Intro, more or less veiled references to real people and events in "1" (pseudo-metalhead, queen of Hip-Hop, Sanremo and May 1st, engaged at MTV...), a look at today's society ("La zona morta"), where ... its reality is fiction like its reality shows. It takes "Il 6° senso" (what a blow!) to turn the "Pandemic" around (a truly, truly goose-bump-inducing text, closed by a palindromic phrase attributed to the Devil... but how much does this man read?!). The victim continues to be Music ("Mu-sick"), but to every action, there is a consequence ("kARMA"), and at the end of the day, ... only name and reputation matter... ("Algorithms"). Certainly, the hours spent on MSN don't count, but those under the stage ("Firewire", and ...the web is infected/webmaster mania, suspect philosophy, nostalgia for the ghetto blaster... almost brought a tear to my eye), because ...the difference is between truth and chatter... ("Blah blah"). Props to teammate Trix who has been following/supporting him on the console for a lifetime ("D.C.V.D."), the storytelling of "Insomnia", truly anxiety-inducing, before the "End", in which he explicitly states the idea of letting go of the whole story. But, after the dialogue from "Se7en", reflection is warranted. Sommerset, despite all the shit around him that he no longer wants to see, doesn't retire but stays to support Mills. At least until the tragic epilogue; afterwards, we are not given to know.

In short, an album of another depth, of another level. Written by an Mmc of another depth, of another level, who conceives a Hip-Hop of much greater depth and much greater level than the monnezza circulating today. If it really is to be Kaos' last work (and unfortunately I get the feeling it is) he has given the mc's that will come after a lot to ponder and a high enough level to keep them busy for the next twenty years. Personally, I feel compelled to thank Kaos; if it weren't for his words (I know it sounds rhetorical, but it's true) I wouldn't be a b-boy, a music enthusiast, and ultimately I would be a very, very different person...