“One hundred metres, I just put nine gyal in a sprinter,” Dave raps in 2023 single “Sprinter”, now by far the most successful UK rap track of all time. The song is predicated on excess, with its cover depicting a sports car being lifted off of a superyacht and bitesize one-liners destined for TikTok virality – but all of this couldn’t feel further away from Dave’s conflicted third album, The Boy Who Played the Harp, released today. 

Instead, the project sees Dave grapple with the weight of his success. Notably lacking the clear hit of previous albums – such as Psychodrama’s “Location feat. Burna Boy” or We Are All Alone in this Together’s “Clash feat. Stormzy” – The Boy Who Played the Harp favours stripped-back orchestral production that lets Dave’s extended rap monologues take centre-stage. “How am I trying to pray for Congo with these diamonds on my neck?” he asks on “175 Months; “I cried about slavery then went to Dubai with my girl” arrives a similar lyric on seven-minute piano-backed soliloquy “My 27th Birthday”.

These central tensions are framed by frequent references to the Old Testament Book of Samuel, in which the biblical David – Dave’s own namesake – plays a harp in order to soothe the tormented King Saul. Most widely, this religious text is intended to illustrate the corruptive nature of power and virtues of just leadership, emerging as a guiding light to Dave’s own struggle to come to terms with his position at the apex of the UK rap game.

These parallels resurface in The Boy Who Played the Harp’s titular climax, in which Dave describes feeling a “total powerlessness” against the numerous injustices in the world, many of which he feels he has contributed to. “With the will of David in my heart/ The story of the boy who played the harp” lands the project’s final line. Much like the Book of Samuel, it seems that Dave settles on music as his weapon against evil. 

With no more than two choruses to share between the project’s ten tracks (delivered by Tems and Jim Legxacy respectively), and minimal production pushed to the back of the mix, The Boy Who Played the Harp clearly focuses on dense lyricism above all else. Fortunately, it is some of the most impactful ever heard in UK rap, and more than enough to keep fans fed for another four years (though I think we can all agree to hope for less next time around). Below, we break down five layered references on the project. 

DAVID

“My mum told me what my name really means and the powers just kicked in,” raps Dave on the project’s opener “History”. While obviously containing parallels with the biblical King David that formed the central metaphor of the project, this line is also a direct quote of a Skepta lyric from 2019 single “Bullet from a Gun” (with Skepta’s family name, Adenuga, meaning ‘king/ruler’ in his ancestral Yoruba language). In doing so, the lyric succinctly manifests the project’s central theme of inherited will – both of Dave’s biblical namesake, as well as in the canon of UK rap. 

“CHAPTER 16”

A standout track from the project that sees Dave go back-to-back with renowned grime artist and actor Kano, “Chapter 16” also arrives as a key exposition on the Book of Samuel metaphor. “Let's make a track about this dinner and this stamp you gave me/ And base it on the book of Samuel, call it ‘Chapter 16’,” Dave raps in the closing moments of the track, referencing Book of Samuel’s Chapter 16 in which David is crowned King of Judah after his predecessor, Saul, falls out of God’s favour. Meanwhile, the song itself sees Kano crown Dave the “rap messiah” of the UK’s new generation of artists, spitting: “You and Simbi [Little Simz], go grab the accolades that they would never give me."

“175 MONTHS”

This track sees Dave searching for a life purpose beyond fame. He counts the years since his childhood friend, Abdullah, passed away; the “couple of years or maybe more” since he last prayed; the 26 years since he was born (now 27); his mother’s last prayer that she “probably used” on him; the “numbers on” his days until he dies, all while wondering what he is “fightin‘ for”. 

Meanwhile, the track’s title itself appears to reference the 175 months that elapsed before Dave was given an electric piano by his mother as a Christmas present when he was 14. While not explicitly mentioned in the track’s verses themselves, this reference adds further weight to the “175” central theme, seeing Dave delve deep into his childhood in order to find greater meaning to his life. “I’m just praying that my purpose can justify my pain,” Dave raps in the track’s refrain.

JOSIAH AND TAMAR

In the closing moments of “My 27th Birthday”, the project’s seventh track, Dave receives a phone call from a character named Josiah, introducing a sub-plot that connects subsequent cuts “Marvellous” and “Fairchild”. “Tell dem man my story,” urges Josiah, who proceeds to ask Dave to look after his little sister Tamar “while I'm gone”. This directly segues into the following track, “Marvellous”, on which Dave explains that Josiah is “In penitentiary on charges that were meant for me, facing ten potentially.” Meanwhile, track nine, “Fairchild", focuses on Tamar, painting a confronting picture of misogyny with assistance from south London rapper-poet Nicole Blakk.   

Josiah and Tamar are also names directly lifted from the Bible. Much like the character on The Boy Who Played the Harp, the biblical Josiah is a prodigious young king whose life was cut short by a confrontation with the rivalling Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt. Meanwhile, Tamar is described as a beautiful young Israelite princess who is wedded to the wicked Er, son of Judah. Although religious texts tell of how Tamar subsequently seduced Judah after Er’s death in order to guarantee a place in his lineage, Dave and Nicole Blakk seem to follow a broader interpretation on “Fairchild”, detailing how women are subject to daily aggressions under the patriarchy. 

HAHA!

Less ambitious than the other biblical references, this Easter egg arrives on Jim Legxacy-assisted track “No Weapons”. Following the line “She got a BBL, if I put that chick on a BMX now she’d wheely”, Dave delivers a suspiciously familiar “Haha!” adlib. Standing out as quite literally the only Dave adlib on the project, this laugh is indistinguishable to that which appears after the line “With bae through thick and thin/ She already thick so we’re halfway there” on “Sprinter” (which Jim Legxacy also produced).  While The Boy Who Played the Harp is thematically worlds apart from “Sprinter”, this detail forms a subtle nod to his last moment in the spotlight.

The Boy Who Played the Harp is out now.