Dave - Psychodrama

The Guardian 100

Fearless and incisive, Dave’s reportage-style tracks sketch out race, prison and abusive relationships, resulting in a landmark record

By now, everyone should be used to hip-hop causing controversy, but even so, the storm about south London rapper Dave’s most recent single Black is startling. When the follow-up to his 2018 No 1 Funky Friday was added to the Radio 1 playlist, it provoked a deluge of complaints from listeners: enough that breakfast show host Greg James felt obliged to address the issue on air, while Annie Mac defended the song on Twitter. The startling thing is that Black isn’t the kind of rap track that people normally get upset about: the standard bugbears of violence, misogyny or homophobia are nowhere to be heard.

Related: Dave: ‘Black is confusing… where does the line start and stop?’

The Guardian 80

(Neighbourhood)

South London rapper Dave has been hailed as a prodigious talent since he started rapping in his mid-teens: lyrically inventive, wise beyond his years, politically insightful and emotionally intense without being uncomfortably earnest. The past three years have seen him grow from underground street-freestyling sensation to truly versatile artist. Psychodrama is his debut long-player, following a series of singles and EPs that showed him equally adept at ripping through frantic grime singles, pained memoirs, blissed-out summer anthems and seven-minute-plus reflections on the failings of the political class.

Related: Dave: ‘Black is confusing… where does the line start and stop?’

Pitchfork 80

On his debut album, the talented South London rapper Dave explores family and identity with the unguarded catharsis of a therapy session.