Coming from one of England’s most exciting up and coming rap collectives, Dee 93 and his blend of tantalising trap beats and quirky lyrics are starting to get the attention they deserve. He has only been penning bars for a year, but with a strong body of producers also in his ‘NTN’ crew, he has been able to flourish and find his space in the world of UK rap. As this is our first sit down interview with an Artist, we were extremely gassed to meet in Soho Square, on a lovely sunny day, with plenty of random people playing ping pong.
Dee strolled into the space with a noticeable confidence and flamboyance, this is definitely reflected in his music, and is an aspect that makes his tunes so engaging and likeable. Talking about everything from festivals, to aspirations, and even bonding over some Ammi Boyz, it was nice to sit down and chat to someone with the levels of ambition Dee and his crew seemingly have.
Kicking off the conversation, we got into a little discussion on park sports in Soho, as us country boys were surprised to see people playing ping pong in central London.
'This is a peng spot, if you have a ping pong bat, you’re set here'
‘For real, there’s actually bare spots around central where people play sports, I am like what is going on? Man is actually on sports?’.
Then we settled down to talk to the rapper properly, trying to maintain a level of professionalism we clearly do not have here at Repeat.
‘If you wouldn't mind saying a bit about yourself, just to kick things off’
'Well yeah, obviously I’m Dee 93, part of NTN and 12, just doing up what we do in London; shows, everything. I do the creative directing in the group, album covers etc. But, we are just trying to do something different with the scene, because we have seen it all and don’t wanna do it the same.’It isn’t even like we’re trying to create a scene, it’s kind of just what we want to do, and what we do best.'
'Coming out of London, you hear a lot of grime, but your sound is definitely more trappy.'
'People say, what are your influences on the grime scene? But for us, its never really been about that. We just stick to what we know. If you want to pocket us in that way then fair, but that’s not really us.
'Yeah, 411 (an unbelievable track off Dee’s first EP) doesn’t sound like grime to me at all. It’s just a banger, it slaps so hard. It features Master Peace too, what is he to you?'
'Well he is part of 12, with YS (YS Tekdinner) and V7 (v7backin2007), and then me too. [Master] Peace is different. The maddest thing is that, he brought up his snapchat a year ago last Sunday and that was like the anniversary of the first time I met him. It has been a year since I met him and his brother.'
'He was on grime daily recently, but do you reckon 411 is your best work with him? Or do you have anything in the works that is even better?'
'411 is my best with him out, but we have some heat in the locker. There is this one called ‘Balcony Views’, which is a bit different to what we normally do, but that one is a banger. Everyday we jump in booth together. For him, he’s his most depressed when he is not making music. He is so jittery, and only quiet when he’s on his phone. He literally did it this Sunday, I wanted to watch Deadpool 2 as everyone said it was wavey.
He calls me up and I tell him I’m at my yard, I tell him he can come over but he says ‘I’ve already watched Deadpool 2’. I said That’s cool, but I need to watch it. He comes over and just starts making sounds, rapping throughout the film. He said he didn’t know he was doing it. Then, he turns up his volume full blast on his phone, scrolling through insta, whilst I am still trying to get the gist of this film. Now, he is doing adlibs, I beg him to let me watch it. Some time went past, like 20 minutes. THEN HE STARTS SINGING TRIPPIE RED, I was like this man is taking the piss. He is a joy to hang around though.'
'So, how was supporting Ammi Boyz with him then?'
'Ah it was sick man, what is your favourite Ammi Boyz track?'
'Has to be D.O.T.S, we were at Boomtown whilst it was pissing it down in the rain, and D.O.T.S came on under our gazebo, that was an incredible moment in all our lives. It went off under there.'
'YES HAHA, the beat is too fucked. Hang tight Ammi Boyz, the first time I saw them was at Boileroom. All of my mates said I need to stick and see them. Normally, no one is better than us when we do a set, that’s not even being cocky. So why would I watch someone else? But then I’m watching this set and their team is going sick, I was just thinking to myself, what are they on? We were watching it and our faces were so sour, T Money jumped on the mic and I said ‘the white guy raps too’? We took the L that night.'
Then they came to do a session at my work, we got chatting and jumped straight into the booth.
'So you have material with them too?'
'Yeah, my producer Modulist dropped an EP today and I’m on their with Omari [Lyseight]. Definitely one to check out.'
'What is the deal with Cosmo Pyke and Ammi Boyz?'
'Haha, when he raps with Ammi Boyz he is Cursa Pyke. That differentiates him between his solo and Ammi Boyz stuff. I’ve heard some of the heat he is bringing to the table with YS and Peace; he just brings so much versatility.'
'That’s why I think Ammi Boyz are so different, he adds that extra element to them.'
'That’s why I will always be supporting them, and Cosmo on his own. It is just like nothing out there, such a calm guy still.'
THANKS TO DEE 93 FOR DOING THIS, BE SURE TO GO CHECK HIM OUT.
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE IN OUR FIRST EVER MAGAZINE, COMING OUT LATER THIS YEAR. HANG TIGHT FOR MORE INFO.