‘School made me realise I was going to have to pull off something special’Īs an interviewee, Dave takes a while to warm up before the meeting several acquaintances talk of a reserved, polite young man who keeps himself to himself.
Dave calls it a concept album and the title is taken from a form of therapy used in prisons that sees offenders role-play events from their past in order to help with rehabilitation. Powerful, bold, ambitious, complex and at times desperately bleak, it’s less of a record to flex good vibes at a Saturday-night house party and more music to lose your thoughts to. Psychodrama is without doubt a masterpiece, the album of 2019 by quite some distance. It was largely produced by Fraser T Smith, a Grammy Award winner who’s worked with everyone from Stormzy to Adele via Sam Smith.įraser, Dave, even Bane: they can all be proud. The two-storey studio space with a green Astroturf courtyard and beige metal garden furniture is where Dave came almost every day for a year between January 2018 and February 2019 to record his debut album, Psychodrama, which has been hailed as one of the most significant and accomplished hip hop albums – never mind debuts – of recent times. So protective is Bane, in fact, that before meeting the rapper warnings are issued: “Do not look directly into his eyes.” As I wait to meet Dave in a stuffy music studio in Parsons Green, I decide today is not the day to test anyone’s patience, least of all Dave the rapper’s dog called Bane. (I can confirm the dog is named after Batman’s foe and, yes, just like the super villain, at times he wears a muzzle Dave, as he’ll explain later, is a big fan of director Christopher Nolan.) The truth is, that dog’s energy, his tail-up, eyes-fixed sense of devotion, makes Lassie’s waggy altruism look lethargic and dilatory. Dave caught sight of him on Instagram, realised its owner was struggling – for whatever reason – and decided to, as the rapper explains, “swoop in and save the day”.Īs you can imagine, such heroism on Dave’s part makes this dog a loyal servant. The 21-year-old South London-born rapper rescued the dog over a year ago. Anyone who’s met Dave has probably met Bane, the handsome Dutch shepherd that swims forebodingly through strangers’ legs like a reef shark might hunt seal pups in deep coral.
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