Hamza’s “Mania” Review: The Good, The Bad, and Everything In Between!

Who is Hamza Al-Farissi? Despite the title of his penultimate album (Sincerely, 2023), the Belgian rapper, who has recently entered his thirties, left the question somewhat ambiguously hanging. Or rather, he provided an underlying but clear answer, one that diverged from the usual expectations such a question might raise: Hamza is a rapper driven by desire.

Regardless of the genre he adopts and immerses himself in (drill, dancehall, R&B…), sincerity for him is less about truth and more about emotions, fantasy, or sheer affect.

Purely Chemical

But now that he has revealed his secret, what remains? How far can he push this dilution process before completely vanishing within it? On Mania, his fourth studio album, Hamza arrives – for better or worse – at the culmination of this philosophy. Everything that could be dissolved has been, leaving behind a residue that is chemically pure Hamza rap: tales of heartache and lust, dancehall romances, overwhelmed romanticism akin to Future, and nocturnal ballads reminiscent of PartyNextDoor.

In the worst scenarios, this distillation leads to a lack of embodiment. On several tracks that seem to operate on autopilot (Dragons enhanced by the late Werenoi, Bottega Veneta, Megan, Come & See Me, and the overly formulaic Afri), the Belgian appears ghostly and disenchanted, much like Drake in recent years, as if disillusioned or detached from his own self.

Full Potential

Elsewhere, Hamza’s compelling intuition and desirous music thankfully take over. This is the music of a rapper who envisions himself as Robert De Niro in Heat (stoic and detached) but is undeniably more like the character played by the late Val Kilmer: a night owl, a cursed romantic perpetually incapable of love, enslaved to his vices.

At his emotional peak when he embraces this ambivalence, the thirty-something is still capable of impressive feats. This is evident in the sequence between Smokin & Drinkin (surprisingly reminiscent of Erika De Casier’s minimalist R&B), Location (a high point of the album) and the self-celebratory Oscar de La Hoya, or the moving final triptych (Yesterday, Destiny, Forever) that successfully amalgamates the best of Atlanta and French song. Who is Hamza? Still a leading rapper of our time.

Hamza Mania (Just Woke Up/All Points). Released on June 19. Live at La Défense Arena, Paris, on December 5.