D-Block Europe Have Proven Their Worth

Rapman directed the video for “Playing For Keeps”, which also features Dave. How did those collaborations come about? 

LB: Dave’s been in the cut, back and forth. He came to the studio, laid the verse and then from there, we all agreed that we should make it into a movie. We felt the vibe of the song before we thought about the poker thing. Then Dave was like, “Let’s hit Rapman.” We hit Rapman, then Rapman patterned up. And it was all in 24 hours. He did a super-good job—shout out Rapman. 

Adz: Yeah, shout out Rapman, and love and respect to Dave—I fully rate what he’s doing. He’s definitely a GOAT. 

“Home Pussy” was a big success. Over five million YouTube views and the track has spent twelve weeks in the UK singles chart. At this point, does it feel normal for you to put up these kind of numbers so regularly? 

Adz: It’s normal. It’s just gonna become easier and more normal, because we’re taking control of the whole game. Because everyone is too busy trying to copy us, they’re forgetting to do them, and that’s just gonna work in our favour. 

You’ve got some big names on PTSD, too: Lil Baby, Krept & Konan, AJ Tracey, Chip. How did you decide on the features for the project? 

LB: Not a lot of it was sat-down and planned. You know what it is, bro? We take a lot of energies from the universe. Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time, and then you just get working. Like, the Lil Baby thing, we just bumped into him at Wireless; he brought us out. We got convos going and he realised that we’re real niggas. We realised he’s actually a real nigga… We don’t care who you are; we don’t actually care who you are, bro—if you aint real, it’s not gonna work. 

Adz: Lil Baby is just genuinely himself, innit. You can just tell; like, Lil Baby was a name before Lil Baby in music. Whereas a lot of rappers, they’ve never had an identity outside of the microphone. They’ve never been important. They’ve never been able to get girls. They’ve never had any say! They’ve got no sort of money. They’ve never done anything. Their whole ego and pride and build-up comes from songs, views and followers. The models are more realistic. 

LB: They’re like robots. 

Adz: But Lil Baby is genuinely real. He did the song and video for us, and he brought us out at Wireless. We’re the only people he brought out at his show, and our relationship will keep growing. We genuinely fuck with him, and there’s no money involved in that. You hear him on our mixtape, there’s no nothing involved in that—just a genuine link-up, and he’s our age as well.

Is it easy to get carried away as a rapper talking about a life you don’t live? 

Adz: I think it’s definitely normal for people to do that, yeah, but if they’re gonna do that, if you’re gonna just play WWE, then only keep that energy on that song and in front of that character. Then when you do meet other people, don’t act; you can’t still be in Big Show mode or Undertaker mode—you gotta be in real mode. 

LB: Some of them just got a high because they know they can’t front-line what they actually are. So they’re more mysterious than they actually are. I don’t like that stuff, man. 

D-Block Europe are pulling off feats that labels would be proud of—but you haven’t got a label behind you. What’s it like being independent? 

LB: Put it this way, yeah: it sounds good. People are trying to wave from ages ago, so they’re probably going to want to ride the formula soon and think ‘I might just be independent like them.’ But, lemme tell you bro… 

Adz: You gotta sign! 

So you’d recommend someone signing a deal instead of remaining independent? 

LB: We’d recommend them to sign because I’d know they won’t have what it takes to do more than what the labels would do for you, independently. Bro, it’s gonna take a lot! Like, we don’t sleep. We never stop recording! We don’t party like these rappers either. These rappers party, but we don’t really do that stuff. It’s just work. Everywhere we go is work. Everyday you’re thinking of a new plan, a new strategy—it’s not easy. 

Adz: Bro, we don’t see our families. I’ve got a daughter, bro—I’ve got a baby mum. I could’ve worked on my relationship and took six months out of music and this and that. That’s what I’m saying. That’s what 99% of people would’ve done. This ting comes with serious sacrifices. 

But it’s paying off! You guys sold out Alexandra Palace—which holds 10,000 people—twice, in the space of a few hours. That’s crazy! If there was an article listing the top 10 moments from the scene in 2019, selling out Ally Pally twice in a few hours would have to be way up there. 

Adz: I think that’s top 10 moments in the scene, period! Nobody in street music that’s independent has put on the tour that we just put on. 

Did you expect the tickets to sell that quickly? 

Adz: Yeah! Bro, we are going to be superstars, so none of this surprises us. We’re grateful and we’re thankful, but we’re not content. And we just keep pushing. We wanna do arenas—Wembley stadium, that’s what we need to be doing.