FEATURE:
Spotlight
from previous Spotlight features, I am sticking with solo artists. Dreya Mac is an exciting young London-based artist who, over the past year or so, has been getting a lot of respect, column inches and adoring press. A sensational lyricist and performer, I think Mac is going to be pretty major in no time at all! Before coming to some interviews with Dreya Mac, here is some brief detail and biography about a sensational talrnt:
“West London Native Dreya Mac caused a stir with her debut single “Skippin” which hit over 600K streams across DSPs, while her Colors session received over 340K views / streams in just the first three weeks.
Dreya has garnered support from tastemakers including Annie Mac, Toddla T, DJ Target, Sian Anderson and Rickie and Melvin and Charlie.
Dreya is an alumni of the world famous Brit school where she studied musical theatre and dance from the age of 14. Since then her professional dancing background has taken her all over the world to countries as far reaching as the USA and China. She can be seen demonstrating her talents in videos and shows for prominent artists such as Stormzy, Dua Lipa and Rita Ora. She has also performed at the MTV EMAs and Brit Awards and featured in the Burberry 2020 Festive Campaign”.
There has been some interesting press and interviews over 2021 and this year so far. I wanted to get to a few of them, so that we can know more about the seriously skilled Dreya Mac. Tipping Mac for good things and spotlighting a rising force, The Line of Best Fit spoke with her in April:
“Mac fell in love with music as a medium for movement long before she committed her voice to record. Dance, in fact, was the West London rapper's first love. Cutting her teeth as a choreographer, Mac’s instinct for conducting sound through her body landed her a role in the visual for Stormzy’s seminal “Vossi Bop” – one of the only women to carve a space for herself in the male-dominated project. So when it comes to self-expression, Mac has proven that her teeth are more than sharp enough.
With only one year under her belt as a musician, four singles which boldly redefine the parameters of the UK rap scene, and a top-down execution of her artistic vision to every beat, outfit and one-two step, to describe Dreya Mac only as a rapper is a disservice. When she was five years old, however, she wasn’t as bold. “I let my sister [speak for me],” she laughs. “I’d just get her to answer questions for me. As soon as I got into dance, it was a way to let people know how I’m feeling without having to speak.” Her foray into music began with the simple intention of having something to dance to; something that drew out the particular shapes and rhythms her body wanted to channel. But in music, Mac found an entirely new, unexpected avenue of self-expression.
“I feel like it’s a kind of therapy”, she says. “When I write, I actually like what I write – I’m really gassed at the end of it. Like, it’s such a fulfilling feeling. When I’m writing, singing or rapping, I can properly express myself. Then I started to realise this could be bigger than what it is.”
Mac can almost pinpoint the day she decided she would take rapping seriously: the first week of the UK’s national lockdown in March, 2020. By this time, she had already laid down her debut single “Skippin’” in the studio: an atmospheric superstructure of cat-and-mouse wordplay and bouncing flows, all built on a foundation of guitar strings that merged two opposing worlds together. “I didn’t push it that much, in my mind,” she recalls. “But when it got to the day they were going to announce quarantine, I shot the video and released it that first week. It was crazy”.
In the UK rap scene, Dreya Mac was a lone wolf. Apart from producer Kill Miami, who helped her spread the word, she worked alone. Yet, she feels that her music belongs to a wider movement. “There are a few artists who I think are going on the same journey as me. I can’t box myself with a single genre because I flick between them all the time, but in general, there is a new wave,” she explains. “But I think I’m coming into the scene very differently to others. I feel like there’s a formula every UK rapper follows, and I’m just trying to break that as much as I can, not letting any preconceived ideas of my journey get in the way of the kind of music I want to release. I’m coming in on a different wave, for sure.”
It's a bar being set by the likes of Slowthai and FLOHIO, who are redrawing the battlelines of what it means to be a UK rapper. “I feel like genres are kind of getting lost over the years,” Mac says. “We’re so individual, now, and there’s so much freedom in music to allow that. I just think all of these people are helping break the stigma that comes with being a UK rapper – it’s really helpful for me, because it means I can come at this with a more open mind, too.”
With attention spans dwindling to ten second bursts from the all-you-can-eat scrolling on TikTok, Dreya Mac is seeking to create music with longevity. “I feel like right now drill and grime music is dominating, but it’s more release-driven than creatively driven, you know? When these things blow up on social media, they can come and go real quick,” she thinks. “So it takes value away from this style of music. I don’t want to just release what the UK will want.” Instead, her line of business is to make something timeless.
She remembers cleaning days on Sundays when she was a kid, with her mum blasting garage bangers through the flat. “I feel like my music is heavily influenced by the way it switches between flows, and stuff like that. It’s the earliest memory I have of music.” As she grew up and developed her own tastes, her influences diversified in ways you wouldn’t expect. “Groups like Tame Impala have really helped the instrumentation of my music,” Mac says. “And Billie Eilish, too – she doesn’t let her age be at the forefront of what she’s doing, and I can relate to that. She doesn’t take no for an answer; she doesn’t let anyone get in the way. I feel like I look further than your average, to-the-book kind of rapper. Musicians in the UK are pushed in a certain direction, and I guess I just don’t want to be boxed in at all.”
But growing up on her estate, ambition like this was a rarity. “I feel like everyone around me knew West London and didn’t know anything further than that. I don’t know what it was, whether it was my upbringing or not, but I’ve always thought bigger than what was expected of me.” She left home at 16, and through living alone, she grew a thick skin and a nurtured a hunger for self-improvement. “I didn’t have many people to talk to, so to express myself, I would just write things down on paper – and that was way before the music,” she says. “And apart from that, I could dance”.
There are a couple of other interviews that caught my eye and are worth including here. FIZZY MAG labelled Dreya Mac a rising Rap prodigy when they spoke with. Maybe a mixed blessing, Mac discovered the pure joy and freedom of Rap just as the U.K. was going into the first lockdown back in 2020:
“You’ve said you began to take rapping seriously in Lockdown 1. How does it feel to have made such massive strides in such a small amount of time?
It’s quite overwhelming to be fair to have had such a big change in my journey in such a short amount of time. It’s a lot to adapt to and I feel like sometimes I put way too much pressure on myself when really I should just treat this craft how I have treated any other craft previously, and understand and accept that I have just started and I have so much further to go.
One gotta go. R&B, Drill, or Hip-Hop. Who you dropping?
I say Drill, just because I feel like it’s dying out already... The way music works is that there is always one particular genre that is trending at the moment (in the UK anyway). I feel like a couple years back it was Afro-swing that was dominating the charts. Right now, we have Drill dominating the charts but it's starting to get a bit gimmicky... I feel like Hip-Hop and R&B are so timeless and have been forever that I couldn’t boot them off!
Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
In five years I see myself touring the world... tired, exhausted as hell from touring but at the same time so full and thankful.... I see myself with at least three albums out and as a world-renowned entertainer.
Your debut EP ‘TWENTYONE’ dropped last month. How did it feel releasing your first body of work out into the world?
Do you know what, I feel like I am my biggest critic. So I’m always going to be looking for what I could have done other than what I already have. But for some reason with this release I was very much okay and at one with what I had produced. Having a body of work out there only furthers my career and I feel like it just shows how determined and busy I have been since lockdown started. I feel like I’ve made my stamp on the scene and it’s just an introduction to order different projects I have coming up now and in the future”.
Before finishing off, NME recently spoke with the amazing Dreya Mac. As TikTok is a platform where she has accrued following and attention, they asked about her gaining huge popularity there as a Black queer woman:
“Do you ever feel the TikTok stigma is hindering you and your progression?
“Before TikTok, I did live shows, I did a COLORS show and I was already performing at festivals, because I’ve created relationships with my supporters. I’ve never thought that the app could be the reason for my success. Also, even if people want to think that, I’d say the person pushing that was me. If something blows up on TikTok, it’s instantly labelled a TikTok song – I understand the logic, but ’Own Brand’ was out a couple of weeks before it started blowing up. TikTok wasn’t the basis for my success. A lot of my true supporters will know that.”
There was discourse on TikTok about you as a Black queer woman blowing up on the app, is there added pressure to be the representation you want to see in the world?
“I’m always about normalising sexuality a lot more. I don’t actively try and set out to change people’s minds or opinions or open their minds, but it happens naturally. And I feel like collectively, as humans, we can actually contribute to normalising different representations of sexuality more, by not making it a thing. I get why it’s important to talk about sexuality but it’s so conflicting in my head because I would never want something that you can’t change or have no choice over to overshadow something I’ve worked for, and be at the forefront of my career. I love being a representation for Black queer women, because I didn’t feel like I had any other like me. But I don’t want that to be highlighted over the art, you know?”
Where do you want your music and artistry to take you in the future?
“I want to be known for my music, obviously, like, that’s what I want to move the world and my artistry as a whole. Every bit of art I produce, I want it to be appreciated more than anything else. But I also want my personality to be appreciated. I want people to love the person I am as well. And, being a public figure, it helps with getting your personality out there. I can do that through music and through dance or whatever, but I want my art and I to be the main focus.
“I want my career to take me around the world. Continue my world domination. That’s what I’ve been putting out there; world domination. I don’t necessarily want to pinpoint where I want it to take me because the possibilities are endless. I’ve always had that mentality in life, in general. I just want everything to take off, really.”
“I’m currently working on my second EP. I will be dropping a couple of singles beforehand, and I’m really excited for my next single coming out very soon. I feel like I’m quite genre-fluid. You cannot pinpoint what I might come out of. I’m excited for people to hear what I can give outside of ‘Own Brand Freestyle’, and I feel like they’re gonna appreciate the variety”.
I think this year is going to be one where we will see more promising emerging artists than ever before. With live gigs back and a new hunger from artists and fans alike, Dreya Mac will court even more love and following. She is someone that we all need to keep an eye out for. If you have not checked her out yet, make sure you do so. This will be a year where Dreya Mac…
MAKES a giant impact.
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