Dave – Game Over

One of the best EPs from UK rap in 2017…

From a rapper that’s had an incredible year, ‘Game Over’ is concrete evidence that Dave is safely on a different level to his counterparts.

Neatly packed with seven tracks, the second EP from Dave in his career is deep, dark and not for those with a short attention span. Despite the moodiness of the record, there’s still a little something for everyone. ‘No Words’ featuring MoStack is safely the track that we’ll hear in the clubs and on the radio. But throughout this EP, Dave shows his usual high levels of wit and intelligent wordplay. We see this clearly on 'Attitude' which is laced with references to cars and footballers that are not your usual.

There’s a heaviness to this EP through its depth that makes it clear that there’s really no-one like Dave in UK rap at the moment. ‘Question Time’ is a brave track which condenses a lot of the concerns and thoughts of a generation into a hefty, but necessary seven minute track. Whilst many artists will avoid such topics, it’s clear that Dave is willing to reveal his opinions and tackle his insecurities head on in his music. The latter is most explicitly revealed in ‘How I Met My Ex’, a stripped back freestyle on a melody played on piano where Dave vividly describes his relationship with a photographer. Here, he humbly laments his own mistakes, such as his disrespecting her dreams due to his own insecurities.

There’s no doubt that this EP reveals the various burdens that Dave feels on his shoulders. On ‘19th Birthday’ he lays out the serious problems in his life. Mentioning the black men that he knows suffering from PTSD and his brother being in jail to name a few, he raps, “In this year alone we made three hundred thousand / But my mum won't smile because her son's on trial”. Next to these issues, he also mixes in the problems he’s gained as a result of his success such as “corporate tax” and how any message he sends to a girl, “ends up in a group chat”.

From this EP it’s clear that Dave is sitting in a phase of his career where he’s on the brink of being huge. Straddling the blurry lines that success can bring, the project is a profound insight into him being pulled in several directions. With this honest account, Dave proves he’s not completely convinced by the glitz and glam of music, but is more interested in the fulfilment from the art and making his friends and family proud. As impressive as this EP is, what’s more exciting is that we know that the best from Dave hasn’t even arrived yet.

8/10

Words: Nikita Rathod

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