12 Music Week 05.10.12 THE BIG INTERVIEWDAPPY DEEPLYDAPPY
Some dismissed him as the clown prince of N-Dubz; the wacky character who made a nation snigger with his bonkers proclamations (and that hat) on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. But now Dappy’s proved himself as an accomplished artist, writer, producer and manager – and he’s got industry heavyweights falling over to praise him. Is it time for everyone to start taking him more seriously?
TALENT BY RHIAN JONES
S
trip away the novelty headwear, controversial behaviour and potty mouth and Dappy can boast of some pretty
respectable accolades. He was the brains behind urban-pop outfit N-
Dubz –who scored two double-platinum selling albums and four MOBO wins – with co-writing credits on the vast majority of their output. Much of his success was formed without the muscle of a major behind him, but on Matt Cadman and Cris Nutall’s dance-associated indie label, All Around The World. (AATW has since taken over the running of Universal’s UMTV.) Now, having walked into the spotlight for his
own solo project, Dappy’s already achieved two top five charting singles ahead of upcoming solo album Bad Intentions. Meanwhile, Brian May reckons he should win
an Ivor Novello for his lyrics, Fraser T Smith has called him a “creative powerhouse” and manager Jonathan Shalit labels him a “genius”. He’s come a long way since his garbled,
notorious debut on Never Mind The Buzzcocks in 2007. (People often forget that the producers of the show were charmed by him enough to invite him back on two more times.) These days, Dappy’s a proven lyricist,
songwriter, producer, band manager, PR man and artist. He’s dumped the silly hats. And as our friendly chat below shows, he’s not unaccustomed to referencing himself in the third person…
What can we expect from the new album? My point with this album was to show that I can do two pop tracks, two hip-hop tracks, two reggae tracks, two rock-star tracks, two power ballads. Trying to show that Dappy is a diverse artist and I’m trying to fly the flag for Britain. I don’t like regurgitated lyrics. I do not do cliché, it has to be a metaphor, and it has to have a double meaning. It’s deep, deep, like smart-type things that haven’t been said before.
Do you think your music is similar to anything else out there at the moment? A lot of people just rap, or just sing, and just do one thing. But I feel, hang on, if you can do it… I don’t agree with people rapping on their songs and
COMING UP
Album Bad Intentions is out via AATW/ Island on October 22
they get someone else to sing the hook and it goes to No.1, and it’s not them that’s singing the thing that’s getting played three times on the record. It’s cheating. I want to do it all myself. If I’m going to rap I’m going to rap as hard as I can by myself and I’m going to do the best hook by myself. You got three minutes on a track, I want to show off on it, I don’t want no one else on it.
Is this the end of N-Dubz? Put it this way: obviously N-Dubz was a massive thing, I sold two million records with them and we came from nothing. I knew when I put Tulisa, me and Fazer together, it was a crazy look but I knew me putting a hat on my head and having the girl in the middle with blonde hair immediately separates us from the rest. It made us famous. So now that’s done, it’s time to do longevity and it’s time to show that I’m not about this tracksuit and hat and young crazy guy on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. I’m a serious musician and an artist who has great lyrics. Dappy’s that rock star rebellious character, Liam Gallagher-type that’s hopefully going to sell a lot of records one day. [Following a “heart-to-heart” with Dappy, Tulisa has since confirmed N-Dubz will reunite in 2013.]
Tulisa recently said inQthat she’s going to rinse the industry for all its worth for three years, and then disappear. Is that what you’re trying to do? If that’s the way she wants to think then that’s up to her. That’s the same type of reason we never signed a deal in America with Def Jam [they offered N- Dubz $1m to be on a TV reality programme – Tulisa was game, Dappy not so much]. We told them, “f off, we don’t want your money”. I ain’t doing no TV. The Saturdays are doing a TV reality
“I would have had six No.1s by now if it wasn’t for illegal downloading. That’s killing us, definitely” DAPPY
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