Toucher l'horizon - Oxmo Puccino

Toucher l’horizon – Oxmo Puccino
2:58 

Cactus de Sibérie, 2004 

Written by Oxmo Puccino and DJ Duke 

This Mali-born French rapper delivers a conscious rap, but not in the preachy, thesis-statement sense.  It's more like an assertive monologue about ambition, exhaustion, and the stubborn belief that you can still push past whatever walls life builds in front of you and not settle for being less than. He casts himself as the guy who started from less than nothing (“Recommences ta vie à zéro quand je la redémarre à moins dix / J'suis né blasé sans un sous / Puis brassé me suis retrouvé sans issue / J'suis rentré en collision avec mes obstacles"), but instead of slipping into braggadocio, he uses that bleak starting point as fuel. The tone is self-mythologizing but never smug; it's more like he's he's inviting everyone to break down barriers with him. The production is all soft edges and slow burn.  Oxmo isn't just talking about reaching the horizon; he's reaching out a hand for you to be dragged along with him ("Viens, la vitesse de mon son frisons").