We put together British Raper Santan Dave Most Powerful Quotes for you
Sometimes I sit down and I think ‘Do I regret this? Do I regret that?’ And I feel like everything makes this snowball effect, you know? If you regret something, it’s good because it just means that it’s something that’s affected you enough for you to stop and think… There’s a reason that everything happens.
Santan Dave
The biggest lesson that I’ve learnt is that things can change so quickly, never get used to one thing because everything can flip on it’s head.
Santan Dave
I’m always looking forward and trying to improve.
Santan Dave
I don’t think that one moment in people’s life should define them. Within reason: I emphasise that.
Santan Dave
The piano is an instrument I’ve always loved and so I taught myself. As a rapper, who wants to produce more, being able to play by ear helps a lot because I know where I want an instrument to turn or how I want it to sound without having to do too much work.
Santan Dave
I couldn’t care less about criticism.
Santan Dave
That’s why the Kanye Wests and the Drakes are just in a different league, because they have the ability to be vulnerable and open.
Santan Dave
A lot of people devote their lives to me and what I do. It means the most to be able to repay that faith. Santan Dave
Santan Dave
I really enjoy Lana Del Rey, and Pink Floyd are amazing.
Santan Dave
I wish I could make myself more riveting but I’m quite standard, as the name suggests.
Santan Dave
ALSO READ Dave 100MS Lyrics [Complete]
For a black person who’s Senegalese, growing up in France, or a New York Jamaican, that’s a completely different relationship with being black and how you might be accepted in that culture or that world. Everyone’s experience is different. Especially black women and black men.
Santan Dave
Rap, for me, I go at any tempo and any sound of beat and incorporate melody as well.
Santan Dave
Music and football are two industries where black people excel, because talent is undeniable. You can’t deny an amazing voice. You can’t deny amazing athletic prowess. Physically, it’s evident. But in other industries, circumstance is more of a thing.
It was a pleasure to work alongside Sir David Attenborough and Hans Zimmer.
Santan Dave
I think it’s crucial to go out and explain to people who you are and where you come from, your hardships – that’s the kind of stuff I connect to.
Santan Dave
Grime must be its own genre.
Santan Dave
I started my first year at college on May 10 2015, and dropped my first video, ‘Black Box’ on the same day, it’s pretty weird. I’m studying Philosophy and Ethics, Law and Music. Ethics helps a lot with music. Philosophy gives you a great perspective on things; it makes you think deeper about what you’re saying.
Santan Dave
I just can’t belong to a genre, because I don’t know what I would want it to be.
Santan Dave
Grime is its own sound. There’s a lot more to it. It’s like a sound, culture, style – the way that they dress and speak.
Santan Dave
I think we internalise a great deal. Music can draw that stuff out of even the hardest person.
Santan Dave
I’ve given her bragging rights. That’s something my mum’s definitely big on, like any African parent. Like any parent.
Santan Dave
It’s what I do my entire life when I’m not doing music. If I’m in a hotel room in Sweden, or on a plane to Vancouver, I’m watching football. I’ll try to talk about other stuff, too, but football is a lifestyle.
Santan Dave
The moment I started learning to play the piano it changed my whole dynamic with music and with school. Suddenly I had a reason to be there, or at least at my music lessons; it just took hold of me.
Santan Dave
Just be thankful for what you have in the moment, but most importantly, work hard. The things that you work hard on have a lot of impact.
Santan Dave
We’re all just humans at the end of the day.
Santan Dave
Black is confusing. Where does the line start and stop with what is black and what isn’t black? People that are mixed-race, or, imagine being from Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, people might say you’re black but your features are so non-black, like you’ve got straight hair, you’ve got like a sharper nose, or such.
Santan Dave
As a human, I’d say I’m pretty intermediate.
Santan Dave
I want to help people struggling with whatever it is they’re going through.
Santan Dave
When I’m performing, the crowd just disappears, it’s like everyone merges – one big person. You just say the words and people will say the words back to you. And it’s just so rehearsed. I have a lot of songs I couldn’t forget the words if I tried. So you get in there, you lose yourself and it’s all good.
Santan Dave
Prison hosts a lot of normal people, a lot of family men who were caught in a tight situation or in a dark place.
Santan Dave
When it gets to that time to tell your mum that you’re not going to university, which has been her grand plan for you for the last 18 years, all of a sudden 700,000 YouTube views mean absolutely nothing.
Santan Dave
Dave I’ve always listened to different styles of music to make sure I’m balanced. I feel like if you only listen to your type of music you can never go outside of it.
Santan Dave
There was a sort of chain in school. I wasn’t, like, mad at the top, but I wasn’t right at the bottom, either
Santan Dave
Psychodrama’ is a form of therapy and it is just expressing how you feel in whatever way is the most creative to you. Some people act it out, some people sing it out, people find their own different ways.
Santan Dave
I was drawing before I did music, but me, I’m a dilettante. I jump into everything until I find one thing that I enjoy more than others. Rap was something that was always there because my brother used to rap – piano and musical instruments is something I learnt on the way.
Santan Dave
I’m not really good in public spaces, I’m not really good with people, I’m not really good at a lot of things.
Santan Dave
A very bland eleven-year-old, playing computer games. I went to a local primary school but I wasn’t anything special or anything insanely interesting. I didn’t have a crazy personality. I was somewhat book smart, but I wasn’t hanging off the teacher, nor was I messing up in class. I wasn’t doing much to disrupt anything. I was just there, existing.
Santan Dave
I’ve always had a different ear for music.
Santan Dave
I like soundtracks. I love Hans Zimmer, the score for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is one of my favourites. I also like ‘Man of Steel,’ ‘Inception,’ ‘Interstellar,’ ‘Braveheart,’ ‘Transformers’ – Steve Jablonsky with ‘Arrival to Earth.’ ‘Schindler’s List’ too, that’s beautiful.
Santan Dave
I’ve always like ‘Dragonball Z’ and ‘Naruto,’ that kind of drawing. My older brother draws so he was always drawing ‘Dragonball Z’ characters and so I got into it from there.
Santan Dave
I like making music when no one’s really there, so it’s just you and yourself: you’re more free.
Santan Dave
Dave I’m not a grime act, I’m not a rapper, nor am I melody man. I just make music.
Santan Dave
I learnt what I am not good at: listening, staying focused, turning up on time, following orders… I realised that I was going to have to pull off something special, something different.
Santan Dave
EXTRAS LINES FROM HIS RECENT ALBUM WE ARE ALL ALONE IN THIS TOGETHER
“We’re All Alone“
‘We all took the wrong turns in different streets, we all cried the same tears on different cheeks‘
The opener on We’re All Alone in this Together probably doesn’t hit you as hard as “Psycho” on his debut album did. However, that is not to say that this track is any less of a fantastic opener. The sentiment of the album title is fully captured in the lyrics above.
“Verdansk”
‘What you know about telling a 10/10 to keep her clothes on and moving good? I aint on beating or misogyny its mahogany I got boujii wood’
Call of Duty fans may recognise the title of this track as the name of the map that the battle royale iteration of the game Warzone is set in. Dave is fully on smoke on this tune, as he takes a welcome break from the deep thought provoking bars, and goes into full stunting mode. It’s the second most streamed track on the album, which could be an indicator that we might get a video for it!
“Clash”
‘Bae, cant look in my mentions thats Area 51, Im so close to my pension my left wrist Is 61, my left wrist retiring.’
The lead single from We’re All Alone in this Together, sees the long awaited collaboration between Dave and Stormz. The track again sees Dave flexing on the naysayers, and serves as a reminder of who’s at the top of the game, in case there was any doubt.
The striking visuals see Dave and Stormz in the Aston Martin factory, driving only the most exclusive whips. The lyricism is certainly something that shouldn’t be slept on, as both artists revel in the spoils of lyrical warfare.
“In The Fire”
‘Fuck a gun charge, two swords I’m a ronin, Blaszczykowski I’m trying to score with the polish’
Track four probably housed the biggest surprise of the entire album. Dave assembled some of the biggest artist in the country for seven minute shelling. Fredo, Meekz, Ghetts, Giggs and Santan Dave himself all go hard in this seven minute lyrical onslaught, no hook, just straight lyricism.
Debates raged online about who had the best verse, and there was certainly several candidates for what Dave lyric stood out the most, but we went for this one. I’m sure Blaszczykowski is not a footballer you’d ever have thought you’d hear referenced in a lyric. Don Strapzy would be proud!
“Three Rivers”
‘Windrush babies from Kingston to Brixton, to say they’re the life of the party you’re wrong. My Jamaicans the entire party you cant see? Big Notting Hill Carni you cant see? The rides fibre glass G you wan see?‘
Dave returns to his comfort zone of politically charged lyricism, as he channels three different stories of immigrants trying to make their way in the UK, and the injustices they face along the way.
The lyric above might not be what you’d expect, it’s not a crazy multi or triple entendre; but it’s culturally significant. The flow that Dave utilises is a Dubz “Pain is the Essence” interpolation, and the way he effortlessly switches is certainly worthy of acknowledgement.
“Heart Attack”
‘Youts on the m6 all the time, we dont need TFL for a northern line, all the best politicians been taught to lie. Where do they buy cocaine when they’re snorting white? Are their dealers safe or are they on the border line? Its ironic because we dont know where to draw the line, man see Blue’s story they’re mortified, man see scarface and its glorified, cause when you’re black everything gets scrutinised, thats why they call it urban it gets euphemised, south London, man are getting euthanised.’
Longtime Dave fans will remember track three “Panic Attack” on the Six Paths EP which dropped back in 2016. This tune was somewhat a sequel to “Panic Attack”. The track is close to 10 minutes long, which probably defies logic, in a time when our attention spans are supposedly shorter than ever. Towards the end of the tune, the beat fades, and Dave continues to spit acapella and hits us with a barrage of hard hitting lyricism. It was difficult to settle on a single line, so we had to give you the whole scheme.
“Law of Attraction“
‘Fuck with me, I’ll put you in a truck with me, you’re stuck with me. You cant take back all the shit that you done with me, you’re gonna break a bone if you fall out of love with me.’
Along with Wiz Kid, Stormz and James Blake; Snoh Aalegra was one of the most attractive features that Dave chose to reveal with the track list. “Law of Attraction” plays like a traditional rap track, with Dave providing verses aimed at a potential love interest bookended by some sultry hooks from Snoh Aalegra.
“Survivor’s Guilt“
‘My ex has got Ivory skin, which is funny cause its really the elephant in the room, is that enough reason to bury me in a tomb? I fell in love with an Albanian, I know its mad we’re not together cause her family would hold us back. I saw the red flags and I wouldn’t want my child to grow in that, rum and red bull its a culture clash.’
The final track on the album is one of the hardest hitting. As the track name suggests, Dave details some of the pitfalls associated with fame, and how he battles with the guilt of being the one who got. This lyric touches on his relationship with his ex, and how things went south. In true Dave fashion, he puts this all together in an incredibly descriptive way.
“System”
‘She wanna do SMS, not save my soul thats spend my savings, waiter can you bring more champagne in for all the times I was living in stress, I wanna own all my shhh, but the systems built so we’re living in debt.’
On Psychodrama Dave had the inescapable smash hit “Location” with Burna Boy. He teams up with Wiz Kid to bring us another banger with a similar flavour.
“Lazarus”
‘I think me, women and Italian shoes, work well together like Maggi and cube, pretty in pink, but she badder in blue, if you were me you’d be arrogant too.’
Rather than just provide us with one vibey tune, Dave delivers us a second one in the form of “Lazarus”. This time teaming up with Boj, to bring us another earworm. Dave is at his boasy best on this one, letting us know about his prowess with the opposite sex in no uncertain terms.
“Survivor’s Guilt”
‘I got gorillas all around me allow me, don’t get grabbed in a party you’re lacking, you’ll die for a whine like Joffrey Baratheon’
Another crazy line from “Survivor’s Guilt”. Dave clearly draws lyrical inspiration from far and wide, Game of Thrones fans will love this one, as Dave references Joffrey’s death with the double entendre/homonym on the word whine.
