About the stone baby

23 Sep, 2025

Author's note: This post was translated from the french version. Please read this one if you are comfortable with reading in french.

I was just having fun looking at some iceberg charts.¹ Something I like to do when I'm bored. It's a way to discover unknown subjects, to train you trivia.

I found out about interesting stories and fascinating things. It range from people with amazing capacities² to really weird events. (Also a lot of uninteresting things)

Then while exploring an iceberg chart named "oddities", I found out about a really strange phenomena.

Lithopedions.

Wikipedia says that it's "a rare phenomenon which occurs most commonly when a fetus dies during an abdominal pregnancy, is too large to be reabsorbed by the body, and calcifies on the outside as part of a foreign body reaction".

I knew about this phenomenon, but I forgot about how it was called. I was doing research on the subject and I noticed something. I've already heard this word somewhere else. Isn't Lithopedion a name of an album from Damso?

For the context, Damso is a famous francophone singer. He sing some really explicit lyrics. Like... Really really explicit.

And that rapper named his album after the really obscure physiological phenomenon at the very bottom of my iceberg chart. That is a really uncommon connection really.

Maybe it wasn't much but it was enough to make me curious. I wanted to know more about this album.

The first thing I did was to go check on Genius' website to see if I was right. And I was right, he published an album named Lithopedion. I then discovered a documentary on how the album was created and recorded. I knew at this moment that the name of the album wasn't random. He didn't choose that name just because it sounded cool, at least he knew what it meant. There was images on a Lithopedion on the first frames of the video.

And then I stayed in front of this video for thirty minutes. I watched it twice. I was fascinated by everything people said, the more I listened and the more I respected the artist. Listening to the testimony of the people who worked with him was amazing. I discovered the album through their eyes. I discovered another Damso. I was discovering the real artist and not the portrait painted by the media and others. Weirdly enough, he was many things that I respected and aspired to become.

I was just so impressed. Such an interesting work of art was hidden there, just under my nose. This album was always hiding in my Spotify playlist in the past.³

At first I though that his songs were too dirty and violent. I though that he was a stereotypical rapper that endlessly talk about war, sex and drugs. But when I listened to his album, I understood that Damso wasn't talking about all of that in order to go viral. He had a vision of what he really wanted to do and followed it.

Just like he said himself, he's only writing about his own life.

Another album that made me more curious about him is one that's named "VIEUX SONS". It literally means old songs in french, so it's naturally a collection of his old songs. There is even the first ever song that he ever created in that album. It's like he want to show that it's not talent that made him successful, but his own efforts. It's like he want to show that you have to start somewhere.

And that's why I wanted to write about him.

Honestly, while writing this post and giving the first drafts to others for correction, I was scared. Scared that what I am creating will bring me problems, that people will start to believe in lies. That I'm for misogynistic and violence because I accept to talk about the rapper in the rumors. Which is not the case at all. But some will maybe think that because I only told a compliment to one of his albums.

But I choose to show this to those who have the greatest chance of creating problems like that. Many will not understand my message and won't get the point. But that's alright. I'll only keep those who are open minded. Those who can have a conversation with someone opposed to their believes.

I'm not for drugs, violence or war. Also I am not comfortable when someone talks about sexuality this openly.

But I have to admit that I really like Damso's music, and that I respect him for what he did. He talked about him and about what he lived, no matter others opinion. In his songs he talk about his flaws, his errors, his sorrows and his fears. It can be his youthful mistakes, his addiction or his fear to become a father. We can see him grow through his music, his creations evolve with him.

I want to be honest, to be myself in what I create. I don't want to let fear preventing me from expressing myself. I don't want to censor myself. I want to be able to tell things in my creations, things that I can't allow myself to tell somewhere else.

I'm probably going to offend a few people, many will criticize my message. But it's not a big deal. I don't want to be a crowd pleaser anyway. I only want to help those who want to be helped, only those who take their happiness seriously. Only those who are not afraid to face my truth, will like what I'll do. Also those who are not afraid to get to know themselves. Those who are fed up with their lives being constantly trampled on for a few dollars. Those who are disappointed with the state of this world.

For those people I'm ready to give them a part of my life, a part of my art and even a piece of my own soul.

The others, I insist that you go your way, I don't need you. I don't want to force you to understand me, because it's going to be as annoying for you as it is for me.

I won't hide anymore.

Muliama

#100DaysToOffload