Towards the end of Digga D’s third mixtape, there’s a brief track called Statement. It features nothing more than a beat, a mournful piano figure, a weeping violin and the 21-year-old rapper’s voice, relating a blend of aggressive street-level reportage, stuff about his dealings with the police – of which more later – and suggestions that what he really wants is true love. It ends with him comparing himself to the biggest stars in the UK rap firmament, then considering his own commercial prospects. “I’m as hard as Stormzy and Dave, what a statement to make, but I say what I say and I mean it,” he offers. “But you will not agree and say I’m too in these streets and the act that I got I should clean it.” Then he adds a final, valedictory “fuck you”.
You can see why he might respond that way: Digga D isn’t, at this point, at the platinum-selling level of Stormzy and Dave, but he’s doing pretty well for himself. A string of gold and silver singles; a previous mixtape, Made In the Pyrex, that got to No 3 in the album chart; enough clout to get big-name American rappers as guests on Noughty By Nature (B-Lovee drops a thrillingly raw-throated verse on What You Reckon, while Moneybagg Yo takes time out from releasing US chart-topping albums to appear on G Lock).
