Wow. You understand 2019 is a great year for music when I’ve got a British rap album as a competitor for my top 10 of the year. Usually, any type of hip hop from outside the continental U.S. leaves me cold, however Dave’s newest album is nothing short of brilliant. As a trained pianist, Dave can relocation deftly with time modifications as well as bridges (check out his flow at about 2:30 into “Psycho,” for example). He can compose tunes that feel like something Elton John may have produced if he’d been born bad as well as black (“Environment”). He can rep his English hood (“Steatham”) without sounding like a man who truly desires he was born in the Bronx. His album brings consciousness (“Black”), self-revelation as well as authentic emotion–it taps into whatever that makes hip hop a important genre. including an 11-minute opus that really should be heard to be believed. Dave does things with words few people are capable of.

This is quickly the very best British rap album of all time.