The album contains some of his previous singles – “VV”, “Assassin’s Creed”, and “How High” – which were released in anticipation for Pain Built. The album has endured a slow start on the streaming charts thusfar, with the highest non-single track reaching 58k hits on Spotify in just over two days. However, the albums looking to be a sleeper hit, with numerous tracks having the potential to go big as Sounds on TikTok, now a vehicle for drill music these days, for better or worse.

After two years since his last project, DigDat sounds much more laid back than last time we heard him; on “Dottys Cost Jeans”, he spits fast bars but with a casual tone, not needing to spit with the same violence or urgency on previous tracks. He hops on a beat like its too natural, not having too use any vocal gimmicks or shock value, but let his fluency do the talking. Far from the maximalist sound of “Air Force” or “New Dior”, Pain Built has a markedly sparse feel, alternating between melancholy and cold-heartnedness. The album is largely devoid of joy, perhaps relfecting the album title, apart from the track “DigDat” whose beautifully bouncy beat is matched only by the artists bravado.

Even surrounding the albums release, DigDat has kept a low profile; no big interviews, features, or public appearances bar the odd Instagram post. Despite the backing of a big label, and boasting numerous highly popular tracks, DigDat is lacking the public presence of his peers.

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As you can see, there are no features yet disclosed on the tracklist. It is unclear whether or not the feature list will be revealed closer to the time of release, or on release, or whether DigDat is ambitiously pursuing the path of no features. Typically, when UK artists rise to prominence, they recruit big-name features to promote a leading single from an album. Stormzy has been the feature artist of choice, featuring on Loski’s, Headie One’s, Dave’s and Ghetts’ recent albums in the last year or so.

On DigDat’s last album, Ei8ht Mile he was not without the help of other notable UK artists, including Aitch, Headie One, K-Trap and D-Block Europe. In fact, there were only 5 songs on the thirteen-track album wherein DigDat appeared unaccompanied, including the Intro and Outro tracks on the album. Dropping a drill album with no features would be a welcome yet ambitious departure from what fans have become accustomed to with DigDat and the genre at large.

Dropped in 2020, Ei8ht Mile was a massive success, with each track generating over a million in streams, and one track, the eponymous ‘Ei8th Mile’ featuring Manchester-born rapper Aitch, nearing the dizzy heights of his biggest single ‘Air Force’. Far from a one-hit wonder, DigDat has established himself as a major player in the genre. Consistently releasing singles and projects for the last four year, he has kept up his workrate to a high level. Releasing four singles and an album in 2020 wouldn’t sound that impressive if his tracks weren’t consistently making waves; one should expect Pain Built to maintain this impact he has on the scene.

DigDat’s lyrics frequently mention his time in jail; some of the most recognisable lyrics from his hit single ‘Air Force’ include “I just got back from a stretch, they didn’t miss me when I was gone” and “What you know about sitting in jail, and you feel like the pillow’s giving you spots?”. Having been imprisoned for five years at the age of 13, he has clearly been through a lot in his life, perhaps dealing with some trauma from having his formative years being spent without freedom. Pain Built will no doubt unpack some of this trauma, given the title.

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Digdat has been missing from the rap scene for nearly a year having dropped his last single “How high” in March 2021. Prior to that release the then 21-year-old rapper from south-east London had released 5 singles in 2020 including the lead single for his debut project “Eight Mile” alongside Manchester rapper aitch.

Digdat released his debut project in January of 2020 and featured the likes of aitch, D-block Europe, Headie One, Tee Grizzly and K-trap. The project peaked at number 12 on the official charts but was the last piece of music the rapper put out with any consistency. Following this release, the rapper went somewhat ghost releasing a handful of singles and giving the fans the occasional Instagram post.

The rappers absence however was explained when he announced his new project, the rapper put an explanation up on his Instagram story and suggested that he may be another UK artist having difficulties putting out their music due to the label they are signed with. Digdat posted this on his Instagram story “To my loyal fans I love you lot. You think I don’t want to put out music or be an artist but you don’t know what I been going thru this year the label have been stopping me from releasing anything. I’ll soon be independent if ur rockin wit me it’s till da end! Stay patient got over 100 songs on dis hard drive”

Digdat hasn’t had the easiest run in the music industry; his breakout track “Airforce” came out in 2018 and found its way into the UK Top 100 before its remix featuring Krept, Konan and K-trap shot up to 20th in the charts. The remix and success were aided by his manager at the time bouncer who in the coming years had a public fall out with Digdat and stopped managing the artist. Then for the rapper’s label to be holding back his output, it seems the 22-year-old just can’t get a break.

The Lewisham rapper is back now  and will be releasing his sophomore album Pain Built on the 14th of January and is available to preorder here.

The words that seemed to have upset Giggs were, “1-0 to the culture @bouncerplaydirty proud of you my bro. 10 years ago Gipset days man would never of saw this coming.” The pair seemed to have related the success of the track and of drill music in general back to themselves and their workload. Giggs is seen as a godfather to grime and drill music, therefore, Krept’s remark was sure to hurt his ego.

Giggs’ response to the comment was rather resentful, “Hope you got a permit for all that Glory Hunting, Pathetic. Goal hanging N**as. You both make me sick. Forever talkin shit that ain’t even facts. Now your tryin a jump on the yutes hyoe and act like your responsible as well. Frauds.”

The comment by the ‘Whippin Excursion’ rapper was shortly removed. However, it is unclear whether the rapper regretted what he said and deleted the comment himself or whether Krept was too embarrassed and decided to take it down.

This has not been the first time that the two have done some minor bragging about themselves. As only last week, Krept took to Twitter and made a series of tweets regarding the lack of appreciation and credit him and Konan receive for the change they have bought about to the UK grime/drill scene. One of the tweets said, “Man helped change the game are u mad. Before young kingz majority of artists from our scene was trying to get pop records for radio and tv and FAILING. Me and konan literally said fuck this shit and made young kingz and that independent release changed the game,”

Anxiety builds as we await the duo’s response to what Giggs had to say.