The Come Up
‘Psychodrama’ may have been his first album but the artist commanded respect well before it dropped. In 2015, at sixteen years old he burst onto the scene in his raw, emotive and bar-ladden BL@CKBOX. Dave showed promise from day one and he continued his momentum and appeared on platforms like Mixtape Madness, Street Starz TV, SB.TV and Charlie Sloth’s ‘Fire In The Booth’.
Dave’s first taste of commercial success came when he collaborated with AJ Tracey for 'Thiago Silva', which not only made waves in the scene but subsequently was immortalised in a viral moment in 2019 by 'Alex From Glasto'.
Dave’s next two cuts came in the form of two EPs entitled ‘Six Paths’ (2016) and ‘Game Over’ (2017). The former caught the attention of arguably the biggest artist in the world and led to a collaboration with Drake on 'Wanna Know'.
Psychodrama
Psychodrama was the artist’s first official album, coming fresh off of his two aforementioned EPs. On 8 March 2019, the album dropped and would go on to debut at the number one spot in the UK – 26,390 copies sold and 26.3 million streams generated.
The album had the biggest first week streams for a domestic rap album and won a litany of awards, like The Mercury Prize and BRIT Awards’ ‘Album Of The Year (2020). In fact, it is one of the top hundred albums ever on the aggregate site Metacritic.
Dave transcended ‘just music’ with this album as it became apparent what a multihyphenate that he was. To call him a ‘rapper’ would be dismissive of his abilities to produce, play instruments and even act as he appeared on ‘Top Boy’ in 2019 as ‘Modie’.
This album is a masterpiece.
The concept is excellent and is structured as a therapy session which provides an underlying narrative. This is a nod to his older brother who is serving time in prison and receives a similar type of treatment. Psychodrama then is broken down to three parts; ‘environment’, ‘relationships’ and ‘social issues’.
Dave is perhaps best known for his socially-conscious raps of which there is no shortage on this album. Tracks like 'Black' and 'Lesley (Feat. Ruelle) explores race and abusive relationships respectively, cutting deep and serving not just as music but as a commentary on two issues facing not just the UK, but the whole world.
You would be mistaken though if you think that this means he’s not capable of producing a banger. Indeed, in the run-up to the album Dave and Fredo dropped their number one track – 'Funky Friday', and Psychodrama continues to deliver, with the stand-out being 'Location (Feat. Burna Boy)
Post-Psychodrama
Since Psychodrama, Dave hasn’t let his grip of the game loosen and he goes from strength to strength. Just last year, he dropped his sophomore album to similar acclaim – ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’. He even performed the star-studded track ‘In The Fire’ at The BRITS (2022).
Psychodrama has simply aged like fine wine over the past three years.
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