Review Summary: Understanding one's place
Ok, so: Belgian rapper Caballero releases a thirteen-minute EP called
OSITO. Why does it matter? Because it's a perfect example of understanding one's place within this world.
A retrospective is needed to understand that: Caballero, born in Barcelona, is a Brussels-based rapper who first demonstrated his chops in 2013 with the
Laisse Nous Faire mixtape. The tape was full of double-meaning punchlines built around convoluted multisyllabic rhymes and warm boom-bap beats. More precisely, "Le Freestyle de la cigarette fumante" rest to this date the best rhyming exercise a Brussels rapper has offered us - when the most streamed track of a project is an eight-minute freestyle, that does indicate how dope said freestyle is. The rapper then followed with two projects in 2014, where one fellow Belgian rapper-slash-producer would make his mark: JeanJass, who will never be too far from Caballero.
Between 2016 & 2018, the Belgian Laurel & Hardy (look 'em up) released the
Double Hélice trilogy. The first episode laid the foundations of their technical - thanks to Caba - but festive - thanks to JeanJass - rap.
Double Hélice 2 confirmed all expectations by expanding on their OG formula and releasing mega bangers like "Sur Mon Nom". However, things did not end so well. Despite a couple of jams such as "Californie", the final album remains shaky, where lackluster compositions hindered the rappers' mainstream aspirations. Roughly at the same time, the duo created
High & Fines Herbes, a show where the participants smoke, cook, and discuss THC. It's a hilarious concept to watch, but the album that came out of these marijuana sessions was, like
Double Hélice 3, rather disappointing. One could say that skunk does damage the brain, yet the central common point between
Double Hélice 3 and
High Fines Herbes is that they were trying to sell coolness rather than offering a full artistic proposal.
After these tribulations, Caba decided to go solo in 2021 with
OSO. Again, it was quite disappointing: Caballero was no longer selling cool but rather trying to tell his story. No worries thus far; it's ultimately normal to want to transcend your status as a rapper and try to
touch people's hearts. But Caballero is not a storyteller. He's a
kicker, and that's not the aspect of his art that stands out on the album.
But the 2022 Caballero seems to have understood who he is: the best rhymer in Belgium. He's not a storyteller, but he's also more than a THC and Ralph Lauren poster boy.
OSITO is 13 minutes of carefully constructed bars on beats ranging from colourful trap to neo-boom bap resembling Griselda's brand. No hefty chorus, no genuinely subpar storytelling: only a succession of hard-hitting multisyllabics, intricate assonances and alliterations, and little nuggets of street knowledge posing as silly punchlines.
Hell yeah: that's what was lacking in Caballero's latest outputs. Not that artists should necessarily stick to what made them famous. What's important is to know your place in the damn game. Once you know where you excel, you must stick with it to leave the others far behind and establish your hegemony. Caballero has remembered his proper place and has delivered a project that, while short, shows he has lost none of his verve. There's nothing more enjoyable than hearing an OG return to what he does best. Now I'm waiting for his magnum opus. I'm convinced that he has it in him, and if he does, the throne of best Belgian technician will be his without question. That would be amply deserved for a guy who has made rapological technique art of living.
