FEATURE: Spotlight: Deyah — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Shot By Nee

Deyah

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ALTHOUGH the amazing Deyah…

has brought out other work since her prize-winning album, Care City, a lot of the interviews online were taken from that time (2020). In November of 2020, the Welsh rapper won the Welsh Music Prize for her phenomenal album. Last year, she put out the amazing Exit the Dance E.P. I feel like there is more to come this year in terms of an album or mixtape. She did recently put out the amazing HeART-Break NoTEL (THE FREESTYLES). A hugely prolific and talented artist, Deyah is someone everyone should have on their radars! I want to bring in a couple of reviews, in addition to a short feature about the Exit the Dance E.P. Huck spoke with an incredible talent back in 2020. Someone forging their own path:

“Deyah has covered more ground than the average 25 year old. Childhood trauma, pain, suffering. Addiction, loneliness, and more addiction. She has found God, nearly lost God, and lost a community of friends. She’s spiralled, spent time in rehab (again). And then, recovered. Renewed faith. She’s healing, giving, and growing. There’s health, there’s love, there’s optimism. You don’t need to speak with her to know this. It’s right there, in her music.

‘Deyah’ means ‘I’m there’. According to another source, it also means ‘from God’. It isn’t her real name, but it’s apt. “I’m a person of faith,” she says. In her Twitter bio, Deyah calls herself a disciple. “My purpose is to serve and do good by people, by sharing whatever it is I’ve learned,” she says. Deyah serves on the daily. Musically, through vivid bars, and in her 9 to 5 as a support work advocate: “I work with people who have learning disabilities and mental health illnesses.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben McConnachie

We’re speaking because Deyah recently won the Welsh Music Prize for her eight-track LP Care City, released last April. Despite being in its tenth year, she’s the first artist that isn’t loosely folk or indie to win the prize, one of two hip-hop/alternative RnB artists to ever be nominated, the only to be nominated twice, and the first non-white artist to win.

The musical education came from her dad, who would play music constantly – “but literally, like all through the night, it was sometimes annoying” – and school her on rap groups, sounds, samples, subgenres and anything else. The writing came partly from rhyming games her mum devised to cure boredom, and partly because, she explains: “My childhood was a bit mashed up. So, a lot of the time I would write stuff down to deal with it instead of going around punching other kids.”

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“I failed all music classes up to GCSE,” she says with a nervous laugh. Deyah didn’t study music at all from there, instead studying theology, including Greek and Hebrew, with the intent of becoming a preacher or a minister. She studied at Newbold College of Higher Education in Bracknell, where she still lives today. At the time of writing, the university offers five courses all within biblical, theological and pastoral education. These are just some of the events that have shaped her.

“I think being unique is a blessing. It works very well for me: my music stands out. There were no other mixed-race women rappers in the area.” Standing out might have helped, but it’s Deyah’s ability that secured a spot on the radio.

The catharsis in Deyah’s writing never left. You can hear the refinement in how she speaks, too. Her tone is always warm yet matter-of-fact. The words are candid yet polished, full of reflection and core-hitting emotion, the result of someone who has spent a lot of time working out who they are. Along with preaching in church, her writing process also helps: “I usually know I have something I want to say, so I’ll listen through my beats until one compliments it. I’ll put it on surround sound, then I’ll walk around the flat getting lyrics off my head for an hour or so. Then I’ll sit and write.”

Care City is just the latest manifestation of this. It’s an album which encompasses many of themes explored on her previous record, Lover Loner, and ‘Therapy Sessions 77’ – an 18-track album she uploaded to SoundCloud in 2017 under a former moniker, NONAMEDISCIPLE”.

Also from 2020, The Lowdown were keen to know more about the sensational Deyah. Such a busy and amazingly versatile and confident artist, it was clear that Care City was going to be hugely successful and lauded:

“Following up 2019’s Lover Loner EP, Deyah’s new project, Care City is an extensive blueprint for a tumultuous few months, the darkest period of her life so far. Passionate and wholeheartedly to the point, it embodies a journey to the murky depths and back again, her mental state meticulously documented and relayed with brute and asserting honesty. A conceptual masterpiece,Care City searches for light in the eternal gloom.

The video to her new single, ‘Venthouse Suite’ is out now, addressing the torment of being judged and mistreated by others, together finding forgiveness in anguish and despair.

Few artists are able to replicate the raw, unashamed candour of Berkshire-based rapper, Deyah. A gripping open book, her confessional lyrics are articulate and unapologetically frank. An opposing blend of rousing narration behind lethargic, lo-fi beats, she excavates her deepest insecurities, probing and scrutinising the essence of her innermost vulnerabilities. Unconstrained by self-interest and armed with purposeful integrity, Deyah is free to pursue her own unique vision.

She was nominated for the 2019 Welsh Music Prize and has performed at notable festivals such as Reading & Leeds, Boomtown, Outlook and BBC’s Biggest weekend.

Hi Deyah, welcome to The Lowdown! Let’s get you introduced to our readers. Tell us who are you and what it is that you do?

"Lowdown! wagwan.. ok so i’m a chilled out non-cussing rapper/singer/song writer who lives my life wanting to serve others…"

How long have you been making music?

"I’ve been making music since i was 16 but it was only last year that i actually took it seriously."

How many releases have you had?

"I’ve just recently released my fourth EP."

What made you fall in love with hip-hop music?

"I grew up listening to hiphop material from early, everything about it is a vibe to me; i don’t just hear the music, i feel it."

How would you describe your music in one sentence?

"Chill and truthful."

How do you want your listeners to feel when they listen to your music?

"I’d like it if the listeners felt an openness, the ability to relate, a safe space, freedom, lack of judgement, faith and authenticity through the music."

Your most recent project is your ‘Care City’ EP. Can you tell us a little bit about its content?

"Care City is purely documentation of a very dark season i endured. During that time, I learnt so many life lessons that i transferred over into my methods of creating. There’s such a freedom within this new project. I’m no longer controlled by the expectations of others or their wants regarding the music i create, I create what i want to create. Care City is me being me."

Do you feel like ‘Care City’ is a significant milestone in your career so far?

"I’d say the creation of Care City is a landmark in my personal life as well as my music career. It is for sure a significant milestone. It’s the first time I’m genuinely proud of a body of work I’ve created”.

I am not sure what this year holds in store for Deyah in terms of E.P.s or albums - as she has already put out a freestyles release a month ago. She is a sensational and unstoppable artist who is helping put Welsh Hip-Hop on the map. It is shameful there is still a lot of ignorance when it comes to Welsh music. With amazing artists like her, Adwaith, The Anchoress and their contemporaries producing simply amazing music, more eyes need to be trained on artists based in or coming out of Wales! TRENCH covered the amazing Exit the Dance E.P. last year:

“It was only June this year that Deyah put out her debut project THAT WorLD. tapes, but the Cardiff-hailing rapper is already back with a new EP, Exit The Dance. She's been priming listeners for the drop for a few months now, sharing one of the EP's singles, "Shoreditch" as well as other clips and tidbits on her Instagram.

Exit The Dance sees the rapper weave elements of her native roots into her rap style, enhancing the overall storytelling and delivery. Project opener "Wahala" features Dutch-Nigerian artist Loshh and is the only feature across the EP, allowing Deyah to centre her lyrical abilities and melodic flow in every track. "Native Ego" follows next, where she explores a slightly sinister soundscape with trappy hi-hats and a pounding bass to sit beneath her effortless flows as she spits her truth.

The production of the project is handled by Ten Billion Dreams, who is the mastermind behind the production on a large portion of Ghetts' Mercury-nominated album Conflict Of Interest. Exit The Dance is the work of an artist rising from strength to strength with each new release. Get familiar with it below”.

Get acquainted with the spectacular Deyah! An artist who is going from strength to strength, she is a definite future legend of Hip-Hop. Forging her own path and producing consistently strong work, go and follow her on social media. Even though she has been on the scene for a bit, her career and success story has…