TRIAL BY FIRE

Drill superstar Digga D's life has been branded too violent to rap about by the British establishment, a ruling that speaks to the ways in which Black music has been criminalised for centuries. But without the means to make his voice heard, who would he be today? In a (mostly) unguarded interview, he weighs in on learning to live in the public eye, and why rap music is always on trial

DEXTER NAVY

It will take Digga D about 20 minutes, give or take, to warm up to me. “Don’t take it personally,” says his publicist, remarking that he is, in general, a man of few words - though being clever and nasty and evocative with them is how he made a name, how his bread is buttered. When we first speak he’s in Trinidad, where the weather is so unrelentingly hot that, even in the shade of a sapodilla, the energy expended by a long conversation can make you feel light-headed. And so he is curt. (“It makes me money,” he says of his motivations.) He is evasive. (“When it started making me money,” of when he realised he was good.) He is brushing his shoulder-length twists from his face and moving…

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Dazed & Confused (Digital) - 1 Issue, Summer 2023

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