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Dave, the 18 year old, South London born rap artist is the latest talent to be turning heads here at Sneakersnstuff. He is currently making waves in the rap game across London and is known for the huge anthem 'Thiago Silva' with AJ Tracey and the very personal 'JKYL + HYD', alongside a host of online freestyles. To launch the latest Nike Air Max 1 Ultra Flyknit collection we linked him up with our favourite London photographer Vicky Grout. Vicky who is 20 years of age is responsible for shooting some of the most important, up and coming and influential people in London at the moment. If you have attended a rap show in London recently chances are you will have seen Vicky capturing the moment. The pairing was perfect and it is safe to say the results were very much on point.

Shop the Nike Air Max 1 Ultra Flyknit collection here.

Listen to music from Dave here.

Follow Vicky Grout on Instagram here.

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New Blood: Introducing Dave and the Nike Air Max 1 Ultra Flyknit

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Dave, the 18 year old, South London born rap artist is the latest talent to be turning heads here at Sneakersnstuff. He is currently making waves in the rap game across London and is known for the huge anthem 'Thiago Silva' with AJ Tracey and the very personal 'JKYL + HYD', alongside a host of online freestyles.

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English rapper Dave has already achieved a great deal for someone who's still just 20 years old.

The South Londoner has collaborated with the likes of Drake and J Hus, and his first full-length album is on the way in March.

And the 2018 Ivor Novello Award winner looks set to take a further step forward with the video to his new single, 'Black', which features a number of huge cameos.

'Black' comes more than a year on from his layered and ambitious ' Question Time', and there's a similarly political flavour to the new song.

Addressing what it's like to be black in Britain and around the world, it features icons including England footballer Raheem Sterling and grime star Stormzy.

"Look, black is beautiful, black is excellent/Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident," the lyrics read.

"It's workin' twice as hard as the people you know you're better than/'Cause you need to do double what they do so you can level them"

The new video is produced by Fraser T Smith and directed by Nathan James Tettey, Edem Wornoo & Dave himself.

It includes Sterling displaying the gun tattoo which saw the Manchester City player attacked by tabloids before he was able to explain the meaning and his anti-gun stance.

Stormzy's inclusion comes after the Croydon artist revealed he was paying for a number of black students to attend Cambridge University, and the 25-year-old has been forthright in demonstrating his politics in the past.

Dave's album Psychodrama is due out on 8 March. It follows two EPs and countless singles, including chart-topper 'Funky Friday'.
(Images: YouTube/Dave)

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Raheem Sterling and Stormzy feature in the powerful video for Dave's single 'Black'

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English rapper Dave has already achieved a great deal for someone who's still just 20 years old. The South Londoner has collaborated with the likes of Drake and J Hus, and his first full-length album is on the way in March.

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Dave has featured in many different PR/marketing campaigns, covering racial awareness, fashion, music and politics. This supports his star image as an ordinary young man who is a voice for issues often ignored.

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Dave - Picture Me - Later… with Jools Holland – BBC Two

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Dave - Panic Attack (Live from Future Festival 2017)

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The way in which Dave performs can be visually analysed due to the sfx, hand gestures and stage sets etc. By looking at Dave's Brit performance it is clear that he carries himself as a voice for the 'people'. Discussing touchy issues that are often ignored, a must watch and a staple point in Dave's career.

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A selection of songs from Dave's debut album psychodrama and his EP Game Over. His music often includes political/racial statements as well as very personal accounts of his life. Offering a 'vulnerable and authentic' version of himself

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Interestingly, acting offers a depiction of celebrities that not their 'true self'. Dave plays 'Modie' an aggressive young man who escaped prison. His debut in acting was somewhat successful and although he plays a violent criminal, he still somehow seems to come across as likeable, perhaps due to his real life star image.

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Dave on being nominated for the BRITs 2018, Grenfell, politics and his epic debut album

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Stormzy, Lewis Capaldi & Dave cause HAVOC at the BRIT Awards 2020! 😂

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Santan Dave Fires Back at Sam L. Jackson Over Racism Comments + Not Knowing He Was on Drake’s Album

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Santan Dave stops by Ebro In the Morning and talks about hip hop overseas, being completely surprised when he heard himself on Drake's new album, More Life, his honest thoughts about Samuel L. Jackson's comment on UK actors and much more.

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Throughout these interviews we get to see Dave's personality, and over the 4 years he has been in the spotlight, his humble personality seems to have remained the same.

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Top Boy: How Drake Saved The Greatest Show On TV

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Listen to this episode from Who We Be TALKS_ on Spotify. At just 19 years old, Dave embodies the evolution of British rap. He's collaborated with Drake, picked up a best newcomer award at the 2017 MOBOs, and can count legends such as Hans Zimmer as fans.

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The BBC depict a chronological timeline of Dave's rise to fame to this date.

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After winning album of the year and stealing the show with his performance at the Brit Awards on Tuesday, south London rapper Dave has announced himself as a star.

His win at the ceremony, for his intimate and revealing album Psychodrama, came moments after he had called Prime Minister Boris Johnson "a real racist" during his live performance of the single Black.

Psychodrama has become only the second album to win both the Mercury Prize and the Brit Award for album of the year (the other being the Arctic Monkeys' debut).

Although it is Dave's first album, the classically-trained musician has had a long road to Brits and Mercury success.

Here are seven things you might not know about British rap's biggest new talent.

1) He's been at this for ages

Dave, real name David Omoregie, made his debut in May 2015 with an attention-grabbing freestyle on the YouTube channel Bl@ckbox.

Hard-hitting, honest and vulnerable, it had all the hallmarks of his future hits. But he bided his time before committing to an album - releasing 11 singles and two EPs over the subsequent four years.

Along the way he caught the attention of rap superstar Drake, who jumped on the remix for Wanna Know. Dave later featured on Drake's More Life mixtape, and the two collaborated on the Netflix drama Top Boy, in which Dave plays drug dealer Modie.

Drake later revealed he'd discovered the Streatham-born MC by absentmindedly browsing YouTube and stumbling across a playlist called "best new songs from London".

2) He listens to a lot of film soundtracks

British rap can be myopic - focusing on the same minor-key aesthetics, clipped beats and self-aggrandising lyrics. Dave, a classically-trained pianist (he passed his grade seven exam years ago), looks further afield.

"I've always had a different ear for music. I really enjoy Lana Del Rey, and Pink Floyd are amazing," he told Vice in 2016.

"I like soundtracks. I love Hans Zimmer, the score for The Dark Knight Rises is one of my favourites. I also like Man of Steel, Inception, Interstellar, Braveheart, Transformers - Steve Jablonsky with Arrival to Earth. Schindler's List too, that's beautiful.

"I've always listened to different styles of music to make sure I'm balanced. I feel like if you only listen to your type of music you can never go outside of it."

3) His Glastonbury set went viral

In the middle of an already legendary Glastonbury set in 2019, Dave asked for some help from the audience.

"I got this track Thiago Silva," he declared. "Who is sober enough to sing these lyrics along with me?"

When Dave singled out a reveller wearing a Paris Saint-Germain football strip with Silva's name on the back to join him on stage, he had no idea what was coming.

It turned out 15-year-old Alex Mann did know all the lyrics to Thiago Silva. He knew them like Elton John knows the number of his florist. And instead of freezing like a rabbit in the headlights, he breezed through the song like he'd written it himself.

It was a wonderful moment - a rare occasion when a bit of throwaway crowd interaction becomes a you-won't-believe-what-happened highlight - and it duly went viral.

Mann later scored a record deal and released a debut single, What Ya Kno Bout That Bro?

4) He dedicated the Mercury Prize to his incarcerated brother

Dave's older brother Christopher is currently serving a life sentence for his part in a fatal stabbing in London's Victoria Station in 2010.

On his album, Dave describes Christopher as "the only person I ever idolised" and reveals how appalled and let down he felt, rapping: "Never had a father and I needed you to be a figure."

Dave told the BBC the record had been inspired by the therapy his brother is receiving in prison - also known as Psychodrama - in which offenders role-play events from their past to help with rehabilitation.

"This is all his story. His Psychodrama inspired this," he explained. "This album's always been dedicated to him, so to see it translate is something I can't put into words."

But the victim's mother told Sky News it was "disgusting" that Dave had received an award for an album including a song featuring the voice of one of her son's killers. "In this sad society now, killers are seen as heroes," she said.

5) Dave's mum didn't approve of his career choices

Dave was still a student when his first tracks exploded on YouTube - so his mum didn't appreciate him cancelling a degree in law to pursue music.

"I was due to start last September - my mum really wanted me to do it," he told The Fader in 2017.

"When it gets to that time to tell your mum that you're not going to university, which has been her grand plan for you for the last 18 years, all of a sudden 700,000 YouTube views mean absolutely nothing.

"That's not a currency she recognises."

But she was won around eventually, joining her youngest son on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo as he picked up his Mercury Prize last September.

"She's given me my life. I literally owe everything to her and God," he told the BBC backstage. "So to have her here, and to have her experience this, is surreal."

Mind you, they hadn't spoken about the prize at all...

"She's just been screaming. She's gone crazy," he said, beaming with pride. "It's not easy to make your mum feel like she's got something to scream and shout about."

6) His track Black has caused controversy

The lead single off the album focuses on the perception of black people in Britain.

" Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident," he raps. "It's working twice as hard as the people you know you're better than."

When it was played on BBC Radio 1, the song provoked complaints from a small minority of listeners who said it was "racist against white people".

DJ Annie Mac spoke in defence of the song, saying: "If you are genuinely offended by the idea of a man talking about the colour of his skin and how it has shaped his identity, then that is a problem for you."

For his mesmerising performance at Tuesday's Brits, he added a new verse describing Mr Johnson as racist, criticising the government response to the Grenfell Tower fire, calling for support for the Windrush generation, and attacking tabloid coverage of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

"That performance has been on my mind for months now," he told Radio 1's Newsbeat after coming off stage. "I've been rehearsing it for about six weeks, but I said what I needed to say and I'm happy."

But Home Secretary Priti Patel told BBC Breakfast: "I don't know how much [Dave] knows about the prime minister and whether he actually has met the prime minister or knows the prime minister. I know Boris Johnson very well. No way is he a racist."

7) It wasn't his first award-winning political statement

Before recording and releasing his number one debut, Dave's earlier political anthem, Question Time, won a top prize at the highly-respected Ivor Novello songwriting awards in 2018.

The seven-minute track, which raged about everything from Grenfell Tower to Syria and the NHS, was named best contemporary song at the ceremony.

In it he vented his anger and frustration at why the government spends so much on defence instead of wages for nurses like his mum, and about how "terrified" former prime minister Theresa May dealt with Grenfell.

Billy Bragg, picking up the outstanding contribution award, said: "It's a great privilege to win in the same year as Dave for something so political and powerful. It really fired up my spirit somewhat."
Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk .

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Seven things to know about Brit Award winner Dave

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After winning album of the year and stealing the show with his performance at the Brit Awards on Tuesday, south London rapper Dave has announced himself as a star. His win at the ceremony, for his intimate and revealing album Psychodrama, came moments after he had called Prime Minister Boris Johnson "a real racist" during his live performance of the single Black.

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Dave won the prestigious award for his politically motivated tune 'Question Time'. The song is 7 minutes long and addresses issues such as; NHS shortages, Terrorism, Issues in Syria, Grenfell Tower tragedy amongst many other issues. Thus marking himself as a socio-political voice for those who feel they don't have one.

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London rapper Dave's political anthem Question Time, which rages about everything from Grenfell Tower to Syria and the NHS, has won a top prize at the Ivor Novello songwriting awards.

The seven-minute track was named best contemporary song at the ceremony.

Fellow rapper Stormzy, who famously criticised the handling of Grenfell at the Brit Awards, won the album prize.

Ed Sheeran picked up two awards - songwriter of the year and most performed work for Shape of You.

Other winners included Manchester band Elbow, whose track Magnificent (She Says) was named best song musically and lyrically.

The Ivor Novello Awards are judged by songwriters, and Dave shared his trophy with Question Time co-writer and producer Fraser T Smith.

Dave (surname Santan), a 19-year-old piano-playing rapper from Streatham, south London, was on the BBC's Sound of 2017 list and was nominated for best British breakthrough act at this year's Brit Awards.

His winning song is a state-of-the-nation diatribe that takes aim at politicians including Theresa May, David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn.

'Terrified' prime minister

In it, he vents his anger and frustration at why the government spends so much on defence instead of wages for nurses like his mum, and about how the "terrified" prime minister dealt with Grenfell.

He also raps eloquently about his horror when listening to survivors of the fire:
"When I listen to the things that the residents had seen/I was so shocked I couldn't even speak/Families they know that had died in their sleep/How you choke on the smoke when you're struggling to breathe/The glow from the fire/The panic when you hear all the sirens/The crackling, the popping and the muffled-out screams."
The best contemporary song category is for tracks that "capture the moment and/or explore the boundaries of contemporary music".

Dave beat Stormzy's Don't Cry For Me and CamelPhat & Elderbrook's Cola.

Billy Bragg, picking up the outstanding contribution award, said: "It's a great privilege to win in the same year as Dave for something so political and powerful. It really fired up my spirit somewhat."

The Ivor Novello Award winners in full:

Best song musically and lyrically: Magnificent (She Says) - written by Guy Garvey, Craig Potter, Mark Potter and Pete Turner; performed by Elbow

Best contemporary song: Question Time - written by Dave and Fraser T Smith; performed by Dave

Most performed work: Shape of You - written by Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid and Ed Sheeran; performed by Ed Sheeran

Songwriter of the year: Ed Sheeran

Album award: Gang Signs & Prayer - written and performed by Stormzy

Best television soundtrack: The Miniaturist - composed by Dan Jones

Best original film score: Jackie - composed by Mica Levi

Best original video game score: Horizon Zero Dawn - composed by Joris de Man, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith

International achievement: Billy Ocean

Outstanding song collection: Cathy Dennis

Outstanding contribution to British music: Billy Bragg

Special international award: Lionel Richie

Classical music award: Thea Musgrave

Inspiration award: Shane MacGowan

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk .

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London rapper Dave's political anthem Question Time, which rages about everything from Grenfell Tower to Syria and the NHS, has won a top prize at the Ivor Novello songwriting awards. The seven-minute track was named best contemporary song at the ceremony. Fellow rapper Stormzy, who famously criticised the handling of Grenfell at the Brit Awards, won the album prize.

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Dave makes his acting debut in Netflix's TopBoy; a show that depicts a real reflection of London culture.

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It's been a big year for the UK rapper, but it just gets better.

When Drake's on board, it's not exactly surprising that this series has far more in store.

Let's look back for a moment to the year 2013. It was a pretty significant one for TV, with soon to be huge shows like Vikings, House of Cards and more emerging. Game of Thrones was continuing to broaden its scope; even then, fans couldn't have expected it would be the biggest show on the planet years later.

Along with the likes of Blacklist, Hannibal, The Americans and Banshee, there's no denying that 2013 was a strong one for television, but it was also the year that we'd see the last of Top Boy - or so we thought. Ronan Bennett's British crime-drama soared onto Channel 4 back in 2011 and was renewed for another crop of episodes. Fans couldn't wait for more, but in 2014 it was announced that they had pulled the plug after season 2.

It looked like that would be it, but as the years have passed, the show's reputation has grown and grown, with rappers like Drake praising it endlessly. With his help, it's back!

Santan Dave stars in Top Boy

A new season of Top Boy landed on Netflix on Friday, September 13th 2019, and needless to say, fans couldn't be happier.

With the following its earned over the years we're surprised it wasn't resurrected earlier, but you know what they say, better late than never. The cast return, along with Ronan as writer, making for a triumphant return to a new home ensuring it will reach more and more audiences than ever before.

Global megastar Drake has been crucial in bringing it back, serving as an executive-producer and helping spread the word. However, he's not the only rapper to give this hard-hitting series a helping hand.

David Orobosa Omoregie's casting in the new season has attracted quite a lot of attention. Why? Because London-born rapper Dave is having an unbelievable 2019, and now this! It just gets better and better.

Who does he play?

The series' move from Channel 4 to Netflix is perhaps best explained in a tweet from Dave himself: "We're the show tell me what we need a channel.. for..."

Dave plays newcomer Modie, who was in prison with Sully (Kane Robinson) but becomes entangled in the chaos of the narrative spanning a favourable ten episodes; the last two featured four each, so this feels like a massive result. Is he a friend? Well, anything but, really.

In the beginnings of episode two - "Building Bridges" - it's made clear that his arrogance knows no bounds. He pushes in front of everyone at the lunch queue and gets into a fight with Sully which is quickly broken up: "show some respect," he says. After another confrontation in a cell, tensions continue to simmer between the two of them, which is probably the right word considering Modie's not-so-distant fate.

In the same episode, he throws boiling water over Modie's face in a shocking attack. From then, we know that much worse is to come from the pair's disdain.

All hail Dave!

His performance is genuinely really solid, and he certainly has a strong character to work with. Fans have praised it plenty already, and we could see him gain more roles as a result on other projects.

As the series progresses, it begins to look as though things will lay dormant, but a newspaper headline in episode eight delivers characters some disturbing news. It reads: "Convicted London Drug Dealer Escapes Prison." It's what it says on the tin really - Modie's acquaintances break him out, holding officials at gunpoint.

His break-out has sinister implications for a number of characters, his appearance now conforming to that of a Bond villain. Casting Dave was a really great choice, as he obviously has talents beyond music. The rapper's debut album - 2019's Psychodrama - was praised no end on release and is destined to top a number of critics' best of the year lists.
SEE ALSO: Top Boy season 3 has landed and this is where it's filmed
We'll continue to expect massive things from him.

In other news, where is The I-Land filmed?

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Fans hail Santan Dave in Top Boy season 3 - Netflix's own Scarface!

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It's been a big year for the UK rapper, but it just gets better. When Drake's on board, it's not exactly surprising that this series has far more in store. Let's look back for a moment to the year 2013.

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10 things to know about Dave's rise to fame and a youtube video above about his ambitions as an artist

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Lily Bertrand-Webb

From Section Boyz to Stormzy, there's no denying the powerful presence of south London rappers right now. Representing Streatham is mononymous rapper Dave, AKA Santan Dave or Dave Santan. Impressing hugely last May with his YouTube debut Black Box, Dave has since clocked up over half a million hits with the darkly dynamic JKL+HYD, with his recent re-re-loadable Fire In The Booth hot on its hit-counter heels. A rapper's rapper, Dave's plaintive rhymes strike many chords, both beautifully righteous and jaw-droopingly raw. He's yet to give many interviews, so we sat down with the 17-year-old to find out what makes him tick. Here are 10 things we learnt about Dave from Dave himself.

Drake - Wanna Know (Remix) ft. Dave
#OVOSOUNDRADIO 32 pic.twitter.com/l5W7pUX2Kh

- Ali (@ChocMilkSheikh) October 24, 2016

1. His name really is just 'Dave'
" Dave, yeah. My full name is David. I tried to go by a tag name and it went awfully - people laughed at me! So I was like, forget about that, I'm just going to go with my name, Dave. I also go by Santan Dave. Or Dave Santan."

2. Dave likes Anime
"I like the whole culture. I've always like Dragonballz and Neruto, that kind of drawing. My older brother draws so he was always drawing Dragonballz characters and so I got into it from there. Around south London, people my age, it's a big thing to certain people because it's got this weird sense of freedom to it. You can do whatever you want. Characters can look however they want, there's no constraints with CGI or storylines. You create anything, a whole world. Anime is so different, it's such a sick thing because it's not from here. It's from a completely different world, not just the Japan/Asian influence, but the world within itself."

3. Dave is a self-described dilettante
"I was drawing before I did music, but me, I'm a dilettante. I jump into everything until I find one thing that I enjoy more than others. Rap was something that was always there because my brother used to rap - piano and musical instruments is something I learnt on the way."

4. Dave is inspired by film soundtracks
"I've always had a different ear for music. I really enjoy Lana Del Ray and Pink Floyd are amazing. I like soundtracks. I love Hanz Zimmer, the score for the Dark Knight Rises is one of my favourites. I also like Man Of Steel. Inception. Interstellar. Braveheart. Transformers; Steve Jablovski with Arrival to Earth. Schindler's List too, that's beautiful. I've always listened to different styles of music to make sure I'm balanced. I feel like if you only listen to your type of music you can never go outside of it."

5. Dave is currently studying Ethics at college
"I started my first year at college on May 10 2015, and dropped my first video, Black Box on the same day, it's pretty weird. I'm studying Philosophy and Ethics, Law and Music. Ethics helps a lot with music. Philosophy gives you a great perspective on things; it makes you think deeper about what you're saying."

6. Dave plays piano well. Really, really well.
"Yeah I play piano, to quite a serious level, Grade 7. I used to spend four or five hours a day practicing, though that's dropped down a bit recently. The piano is an instrument I've always loved and so I taught myself. As a rapper, who wants to produce more, being able to play by ear helps a lot because I know where I want an instrument to turn or how I want it to sound without having to do too much work. [My favourite song is] probably Hanz Zimmer's Like a Dog Chasing Cars. It's from the Dark Knight. Wait there [runs to piano and plays] this one. My favourite song to play though is Kingdom Hearts II, Passion. It's from a Japanese game."

7. Dave has some famous fans
"Stormzy's been showing me mad love, I've got mad love for Stormzy, he's a great guy. Yeah Stormzy and Wiley, they are two very big names that have shown me love. Also Potter Payper and Devlin have been supporting, all my guys from Hackney, George the Poet. Oh and Will Poulter. Is that his name? the actor? That was a strange one, but that was sick.

8. The most important people in Dave's life are his brothers
"They remind me to make use of everything I have, all the time, everything I take for granted. That's why a lot of my music is brother-centric. In my FITB I purposely didn't mention their names or stuff about them because other tracks I have mentioned them all the time. But they're actually so important to me, their influence, everything around me. That's why it shows up in my music a lot. It means a lot to me for them to hear my music now they're in prison. They got to hear my Fire In The Booth. Whenever I speak to my brothers in prison - not just them actually, I have nine or 10 very close friends in prison - to have all of them calling me to tell me they heard me on the radio. That's always been so important to me, because they can't listen to their own music in there, so to be able to change that from a year ago, watching them complain about the music they're listening to, to a year later, is crazy."

9. Dave reminds i-D of a young Klashenkoff
"Yeah I've heard of Klashnekoff, someone else said that to me before. The balance of being political and relatable is one that people need to make sure they reach correctly. You don't want to be a preacher, but then you don't want to be too aggressive and not deliver a message at all. I want my music to have content but also be listenable. Sometimes I might make music that has no content, but whenever I'm at big platforms, it's good to deliver a message. When I had my Warm U p, I used my opportunity to go and deliver a message because I know people are going to see it. I don't want a lot of people seeing the wrong thing."

10. He has a grime track with AJ Tracey coming soon
"Yeah, we're good friends, still."

Credits

Text Hattie Collins
Photography Lily Bertrand-Webb

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10 things you need to know about santan dave

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Lily Bertrand-Webb From Section Boyz to Stormzy, there's no denying the powerful presence of south London rappers right now. Representing Streatham is mononymous rapper Dave, AKA Santan Dave or Dave Santan. Impressing hugely last May with his YouTube debut Black Box, Dave has since clocked up over half a million hits with the darkly dynamic JKL+HYD, with his recent re-re-loadable Fire In The Booth hot on its hit-counter heels.

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Dave appears in GQ magazine as British breakthrough act. This interview reveals an insight to his work on psychodrama. It depicts Dave as an authentic celebrity revealing stories of his personal life and his rise to fame.

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With a flick shank in English like this life is Of Mice And Men I could feel myself changing, as I started ageing, my mind started fading, and my back started aching Year eleven fought depression popping pills inside my lessons Yes, I smile but I was stressing, music's such a blessing 'Warm Up Session' (2015)
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. The 21-year-old South London-born rapper rescued the dog over a year ago. 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".

As you can imagine, such heroism on Dave's part makes this dog a loyal servant. (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. 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.

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. It was largely produced by Fraser T Smith, a Grammy Award winner who's worked with everyone from Stormzy to Adele via Sam Smith.

Fraser, Dave, even Bane: they can all be proud. Psychodrama is without doubt a masterpiece, the album of 2019 by quite some distance. 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. 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.

'Psychodrama was the album I needed it to be, the album that was expected of me'

Throughout the record the listener hears the voice of an actor playing Dave's therapist. We hear the therapist introduce the premise and Dave's first track: "Tuesday 23 January 2018. I'm here with David. This is our first session. We're just going to talk about your background, where you're from, any issues you've been dealing with... So where should we start?"

There are occasional chinks of light - a track named "Location" (feat Burna Boy) being about the closest Dave ever gets to a summer banger - but the issues wrestled with include identity, race, mental health, domestic violence, societal injustice, industry posturing, the prison system, cultural appropriation and the pressures of growing up with a family split apart by youth violence and the pressure of making ends meet in a city that is divided.

Unlike other rap artists, Dave is also fearless about pointing out the failings of his own community and his own industry. "Environment" begins with the therapist asking, "What do you think people see when they look at you?" And as an answer Dave responds, "You see our gold chains and our flashy cars / I see a lack of self-worth and I see battle scars / He has to be with 20 man when he wears jewellery / And you see it as gangster, I see it as insecurity."

An imaginative, socially conscious and self-aware lyricist, comparisons have been made to US rappers Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Nas and even Eminem. If Stormzy paved the way from the streets (via grime's new lease of life around five years ago) to the charts (peaking with a headline slot at Glastonbury this year), then Dave is the crème de la crème of the next generation of British rap stars (alongside J Hus, AJ Tracey, Skepta, MoStack, Slowthai and Loyle Carner) to come through and feel the heat of some significant commercial success.

"Shall I put his muzzle on?" The rapper formerly known as David Orobosa Omoregie, the youngest of three brothers - his parents are Nigerian - has emerged from the studio and we've found a large boardroom with glass walls to sit in and talk. Also in attendance are one of his two managers, Jack Foster, best friend Justin, Dave's publicist and Bane, who seems less menacing than just a little needy.

"I gave him two injections yesterday," remarks the rapper, today wearing a kaleidoscopic blue, red and yellow T-shirt from A Bathing Ape and Nike tracksuit bottoms the colour of a rain cloud. "He's had a bout of gastro... gastro... gastroenteritis? Is that how you say it?" Around Dave's neck are a pair of dog tags. I notice the silver caps he usually wears on his canine teeth - grills that make his wide grin seem even more wolfish - are absent.

I had assumed Dave was in the studio doing something specific. "I can't even remember why I am here today," he tells me, shaking his head like someone trying to wake up. "How I work changes. I might have a particular line or lyric I want to build everything around or an idea I want to work towards. What's important is the flow; how words fit together with the tempo. Trying to make my words not sound weird when I say them out loud is a priority."

'School made me realise I was going to have to pull off something special'

As 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. Much like meeting a stand-up comedian who doesn't crack one-liners in the pub after a gig, Dave couldn't be further from a Moët-popping, name-dropping rap star, someone like current US trap hit maker (and Kanye affiliate) Lil Pump, whose Instagram feed shows him showering strippers with stacks of dollar bills, revving Lamborghinis and rooms fugged up by lit blunts. Dave, by comparison, runs on a darker, quieter energy.

"Psychodrama allowed me to get a lot off my chest," he explains when I ask about the message and desired impact of his debut, the favourite to win the much-coveted Mercury Prize. "It allowed me to become the person that I wanted to live up to being. It allowed me to fulfil my potential, changing the way people see me and the way I see myself. It was the album that I needed it to be, the album that was expected of me."

I ain't got a memory of when Dad was around Still a child when I turned man of the house Tell me what you know about a bag full of bills And your mum crying out, saying, "Son, I can't take it" And then staring in the mirror for an hour With a tear in your eye like, "I gotta go make it" 'Screwface Capital' (2019)
"Bland." That's how Dave describes himself when I ask what he was like as a child. "Yeah. A very bland eleven-year-old, playing computer games. I went to a local primary school but I wasn't anything special or anything insanely interesting. I didn't have a crazy personality. I was somewhat book smart, but I wasn't hanging off the teacher, nor was I messing up in class. I wasn't doing much to disrupt anything. I was just there, existing."

What was he reading? " An Inspector Calls, To Kill A Mockingbird... That one was painful. I'd read a lot in class. The Tempest... I liked that one called Artemis Fowl, but I wouldn't read at home. I remember my mum's friend Bernard used to write books, some sort of dark fantasy erotica. I never understood why." Did he like school? "I learnt what I am not good at: listening, staying focused, turning up on time, following orders... I realised that I was going to have to pull off something special, something different."

'There was no social media... Rap stars, artists, were like aliens. Untouchable'

Dave describes himself as a "dilettante", a rummager, a cultural meanderer, someone who will pick up and play with pretty much any cultural marble but only stick with the things that truly take his brain somewhere else. Anime was one of these things: " Dragon Ball Z and Naruto, that kind of drawing." Rap was something too. "My older brother used to rap, although he drew as well. It was always there. None of us knew we had any sort of talent.

"I remember loving artists such as Kano and Devlin, but as there was no social media it was much harder to access them. You could download tracks through Limewire [a torrent app] or if you were lucky you'd catch them on Channel U [a pioneering urban music satellite channel that stopped broadcasting last year] in the morning before you went to school. Rap stars, artists, whatever you want to call them, were like aliens. Untouchable. Unimaginable really."

It was 2009 and Dave was eleven when he wrote his first bar. "I don't remember feeling shy or worried. I remember feeling pretty confident about it. It was 2009, I think, as I know it was about Newcastle FC just getting relegated. 'Relegation, segregation...' Something like that. I was just passing the time really. There was never any strategy or goal." Aged 13 he put out his first track: "Everybody hated it," he says, chuckling. "I kind of thought I'd blown it really. I retired."

Music didn't become meaningful for Dave until, aged 14, he realised it was a universe that could absorb his thoughts, something that he could shape and create rather than just words or notes he had to mine and mimic. "The moment I started learning to play the piano it changed my whole dynamic with music and with school. Suddenly I had a reason to be there, or at least at my music lessons; it just took hold of me." Seeing the impact music was having on her son, and keen for him to find something to push his energy into, Dave's mother bought him an electric keyboard.

"It wasn't immediate," he explains. "Getting good took time." Dave had a friend called Kyle and they decided to learn piano together, getting competitive over who could learn compositions first. They pored over soundtracks, in particular music from Christopher Nolan's films, such as Inception and Interstellar. "Hans Zimmer is a hero, for sure. 'Like A Dog Chasing Cars' [from The Dark Knight soundtrack] is one of my all-time favourite tracks."

Each week Dave and Kyle would choose a song - another was Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" - track down the sheet music online, practise and then play it back to one another. His music teachers at school also encouraged him; later, he mentions he's still close to at least one of them. Kyle is credited on Psychodrama as a producer, helping out on keys and composition on certain tracks. Eventually, Dave attained piano grade seven, the second highest given.

"I was just replying to other people's music at first and then something changed. I wanted to put my own twist on things, make my songs and my melodies. It took years, though, and I don't pretend it's something I clicked into right away. After three years of learning piano, pretty much self-taught, I started improvising. But, again, it wasn't in the bloodline or anything anyone in my school had done. It was just a really random thing I picked up."

In the background to all this, Dave's home life was in turmoil. His father had always been absent - "I have no memories of him" - but just as Dave was turning from child to young teenager, around eleven, both his older brothers, Ben and Chris, were sent to prison, Ben for robbery and Chris for his conviction under joint enterprise for gang-related violent crime.

The eldest, Ben, came out in 2018 after serving four years, but Chris, five years older than Dave, received a minimum life sentence of 18 years. Although Dave wasn't particularly close to his brothers socially, he still looked up to them hugely and their convictions tore through his family; the blast radius affected everything and everyone, not least their mother. Although Dave prefers to let his music fill in the blanks around this subject, rightly worried about media misrepresentation, the influence these events have had on him and his work is deeply significant.

Dave's mental health was also affected. After his brothers went to jail his mother became, unsurprisingly, overprotective of her youngest. In agreement with her other sons she banned Dave from going out after school. This meant less time on the streets, in the crosshairs of trouble, and more time at the piano and more time honing his lyrics and flow. Of course, it also meant more time in his room alone - at an important juncture of development - staring at the constellation of his own thoughts and concerns. Yet, as his mind went inwards, he found it helped to channel those emotions outwards and into his music. Aged 13, he tried and he stumbled. But he got much better. And quickly.

One of the first times anyone got to see and hear the progress Dave had made as a rapper was on 10 May 2015, not only the day he started college in Richmond (aged 16, studying philosophy, ethics, law and sound design), but also when he released a freestyle on Blackbox, a Youtube channel dedicated to promoting "the up & coming". The name comes from the room in which the artist is videoed.

Dave's session is still online, but now has almost three million views; he stands with a Gucci cap on backwards and a black scarf around his neck. He also keeps his eyes down for almost the entirety of the track. The subjects he touches on are raw and that early style seems angry and aggressive when compared to Psychodrama. What there was already, however, is an innate ability to transmit authenticity, to peel back his own emotional layers to expose the hurt, rage and at times confusion. One can see his was an exceptional, dexterous talent on display, even at 16.

'I'm still angry about Grenfell. We all are. It's up to musicians to take note'

In the Blackbox session, Dave raps about the details surrounding his brother's case, how he visits him in prison and how, "Them visits had me crying, had me whelping / Had me taking pills to help it / Looking, thinking who am I? / Trust, you never knew this guy / Grandma died, had my mother stricken, talking suicide." It's hard to listen to some of it; it's genuine storytelling rather than the usual clichéd, chest-thumping folklore that fills so much airtime in a genre that's often hemmed in by it's own trad machismo. After the Blackbox session Dave's rapping began to be noticed by various industry figures. Within months he was seen on Jamal Edwards' influential SBTV and within a year, in 2016, Drake was calling him up wanting to remix Dave's single "Wanna Know". He released his first EP, Six Paths, on 30 September 2016 and two years later secured his first UK No1 with "Funky Friday". Life, for Dave, hadn't just moved fast; it had gone hypersonic.

Whether Dave did go on to medication to help him deal with the trauma of his home life is unclear; but his surroundings' creative influence on Psychodrama is undeniable. The last track on the album, "Drama", begins with his brother's voice from prison, explaining how he didn't know who would "Bring me out of this shit," but that "Mans, I'm very proud. I'm very happy to see it's one of my own." Dave's subsequent verses are delivered directly to his brother. It's full of anticipation ("I'm excited, man, I pray you get to hear my craft / From our childhood, our mother didn't hear me laugh"), regret at not being closer to his sibling ("My brothers never spoke to each other when I was growing up / I remember tryna build a bridge, I wasn't old enough") and an explanation, of sorts, about how all that turmoil resulted in his silent ambition and a roar for success ("I learn over time, separation issues I describe / Are probably the reasons that I struggle feeling anything / I ain't got a vision of a marriage or a wedding ring / It's world domination in music or it ain't anything").

"I think we internalise a great deal," he says when I ask why his music connects with people who know nothing of the problems he himself talks about or has faced. "Music can draw that stuff out of even the hardest person." And that's his main appeal: using his own situation to talk about universal problems, his vulnerability his weapon, allowing for empathy and connection from a rapt audience.

I've got a question for the new prime minister At Grenfell Tower, your response was ridiculous You hid like a coward behind your five million Dodged responsibility and acted like you're innocent And I can see you're terrified, you're not good at telling lies I'm getting why you stay away from everything that's televised You look like a robot and you don't speak with any life It feels to me like any guy in press could've said them lines 'Question Time' (2017)
In 2018, Dave won an Ivor Novello Award for his song "Question Time", a track that took a direct aim at Theresa May and what the rapper saw as the UK political establishment's failings concerning Grenfell, the war in Syria, Isis, terrorism, underpaid NHS workers (Dave's own mother worked for 22 years as a cleaner in various London hospitals), Brexit and even the £350m pledged by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave campaign. In the song he also points the finger at US politicians: "Speaking of America, state and the president / With all due respect, I've got something to say for them / I just find it funny you can't give a hand to Palestine / But you can trade whole arms with Saudi Arabia."

Dave speaks about each subject eloquently and with an unblinking conviction. The day we talk it is around two weeks away from Johnson becoming the UK's new PM. I ask him why he feels the need to comment on politics? "Music, for me, is about being in the time, of the time, all the time. When I look back on it I hope one can say I was involved in the process.

"I'm still angry about Grenfell. I think we all are. I worry about finding the right words, but we're all upset and I don't feel people have been treated correctly. I think it's up to us, as musicians, to take note. For me music is always about making time capsules; 'Question Time' is one of those time capsules, although the problems raised will stand forever. That's politics."

Does he have faith in politicians? "I don't think it's easy to have faith in politicians; it's an impossible job." And how about Johnson? " Boris is definitely someone who knows more than he lets on. That impression we have of him..." at which point Dave suddenly breaks his calm demeanour and does what is actually not a terrible impression of the blond-haired Bojo, all blustery mumbling and head shaking "...is something of a disguise. He's in a position to be prime minster for a reason; Boris is not a bumbling fool. But I'm not saying he's someone with a clean heart either. Wasn't he mayor for a while?" He was, yes. "Was he any different to what Sadiq Khan is doing now?" Well, I say, one has to wonder whether enough is being done around the spike in youth violence and knife crime presently.

'If you speak to your friends correctly, all conversation should feel like therapy'

I pull out a copy of today's Evening Standard. On the front page, yet again, is a report about knife violence in London, involving a male in his late teens who has died, with two others being rushed to hospital. I explain to Dave that, as a father with two young children growing up in the capital, this sort of thing, which seems to be escalating, worries me. "It is something that needs to be seriously looked at. It is something so complex; something that has 100 different faces that can't be solved with any one thing."

As someone whose family has been touched by inner-city violence, does Dave feel there is enough support given when such tragedy hits? "I think whole lives can change because of one event and I don't feel people are sensitive enough to that. You get a lot of people that are willingly ignorant to problems that people face. Mental health is a real thing and it needs to be dealt with on a par with a physical illness. Something will happen to someone and they won't be able to eat or move or anything..."

Is the industry changing with this next generation of artists? Has some of the traditional machismo been dropped? "Depends on the musician and depends on the type of friends you have around you. If you are open yourself it will encourage others to be open. But sometimes you don't want to talk because you know talking won't make it any better. Ranting works for me. If you're speaking to your friends correctly then every conversation should feel like therapy."

My time with Dave is almost up. The air in the studio is cooling, as is the weather system coming in from Northern Europe. Bane is getting hungry. Dave has a guest spot with J Hus at Lovebox, where he's due on stage in around 45 minutes; he's supposed to be halfway there already.

The Monday after we meet, Dave leaves for a tour of Australia, while his North American tour kicks off later in the autumn. September sees the transmission of his first acting part via Netflix: he plays a ruthless drug dealer with a wide smile in the Drake exec-produced third series of Top Boy, alongside original cast Ashley Walters and Kano. "Let's just say I had to actually act," Dave chuckles of his role, a scarred gangster intent on revenge. "My own character is very far from who I am. He's... hyperbolic."

Time's up. Wheels up. Bane's up and wagging. Dave and I shake hands. I thank him for his time; he responds as he does to every compliment, by earnestly bumping a closed fist to his heart. His jewellery rattles and he smiles. Despite his generosity - we've been talking for twice as long as we'd scheduled - it feels like our time is cut short; as with his music, even in conversation one feels you've only just scratched the surface of what Dave has to offer and impart. Repeat listening, and hearing, and ranting are strongly advised.

Don't worry if you don't get the chance to talk to him about it in person, however; Dave Orobosa Omoregie is all out there anyway. His entire story - thus far. More than he'd ever tell you face-to-face. One gets the impression, and one hopes, that Psychodrama won't be Dave's only therapy session. There's so much more to talk to himself about. So, till next time. Are you sitting comfortably? Then he'll begin.
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Dave: 'Psychodrama was the album I needed it to be'

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With a flick shank in English like this life is Of Mice And Men I could feel myself changing, as I started ageing, my mind started fading, and my back started aching Year eleven fought depression popping pills inside my lessons Yes, I smile but I was stressing, music's such a blessing 'Warm Up Session' (2015) 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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Dave at the Brits performing his political and racially motivated song 'Black' at the 2020 Brits awards prior to winning album of the year for his debut album; Psychodrama.