https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/baby-osamaa-on-tha-run/

My number one and maybe only rule of art is don’t be boring, and this new Baby Osamaa tape passed the test, made me widen my eyes and think, what the fuck is this?? Doesn’t happen every day.

Technically, it’s generic YMCMB beats (Alphonse hit the nail with the comparison), which could very well been made via generative AI. That in itself might be boring, even tho I do like the style. But underpinning chaotic, unhinged melodic raps processed to oblivion (made me think of Kode9’s “crying circuitry”)? Well that is another story.

Baby Osamaa’s wild approach on the mic suggests barely hanging onto reality’s edge, potentially fueled by a combination of tuci and acid (if you believe the lyrics). It’s like she is running fast, grabbing the baton from Lil Wayne and Young Thug, without biting styles. Her loose, yet highly contorted sensibility makes this music anti conservative and potentially even upsetting for those looking for meat and potatoes.

I understand being annoyed by that, or the at times gratingly artificial aesthetic of the whole tape. But if you can tolerate it, or even enjoy the potentially trollish aspect, there is something cool and confident about someone so far off script, operating with their own internal logic, that draws me into the idiosyncrasy.

The overall mixture causes friction that I think is complementary, kind of like a band where the members think they are actually in different bands, but their combination works nonetheless. That Baby Osamaa seems to have orchestrated it to be this way, however, is some actual factual outside the box thinking. As buckwild as it is, the project is focused and speaking its own language.