Dressed in what seems to be a really costly designer monitor high, from the neck down the person in entrance of me definitely seems to be the a part of skilled footballer on a time without work. Box-fresh white Nikes, dishevelled shorts over sports activities tights and gloves full the look – together with the studded black rose masks concealing his identification.
This is Dide, an incognito rapper who began releasing music on-line earlier in 2023. Why the thriller? Because, he claims, he’s additionally a present Premier League participant.
Strolling throughout a small metropolis pitch normally reserved for five-a-side video games close to London’s Waterloo Station, a far cry from the multimillion-pound stadiums he says he’s used to, he says whats up and shakes arms with the Sky News crew earlier than settling down on the astroturf to provide his first on-camera interview, his supervisor and in addition his personal cameraman in tow.
Word spreads rapidly and a small crowd of younger footballers grows behind us, keen to look at the person within the unusual masks, probably a British footballing hero, in motion.
Dide’s look provides little away; he is about 5ft 10in and slender-ish, although the highest is free, just about each inch of his physique is roofed. The voice that has clocked up hundreds of thousands of YouTube views and Spotify performs, now talking in particular person – the accent suggests London – shouldn’t be distorted or modified in any manner, he assures.
There has been frenzied hypothesis and quite a few headlines written because the launch of his first monitor, Thrill, in April. The music has racked up greater than 5m performs on Spotify and Dide has greater than 200,000 month-to-month listeners; on YouTube, the monitor has 2.3m views and the artist nearly 80,000 subscribers.
Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah appears to be the favorite amongst web sleuths, however different names within the combine embrace Nketiah’s teammates Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson, Chelsea’s Noni Madueke, Fulham’s Alex Iwobi – already recognized for his rapping expertise – and West Ham’s Michail Antonio.
Plus, Wilfried Zaha and Sheyi Ojo, though Zaha moved from Crystal Palace to Turkey’s Galatasaray earlier this 12 months, and Ojo is on mortgage in Belgium from Championship membership Cardiff City – however did play for Liverpool till 2022. Everything from video places – Bermondsey has been noticed – to attainable tattoos has been poured over for a possible giveaway.
Or, may this all be a intelligent advertising and marketing ploy? There is little question the anonymity has helped create a wave of curiosity. His lyrics feed the hype, with references to a crew that “stays winning” and gamers together with Neymar and Harry Kane, in addition to him “seeing seven figures”.
Sky News requested to confirm Dide’s identification not for publication, however he politely declined. However, reasonably than requesting to fulfill at maybe the safer possibility of a music studio, he did comply with a soccer pitch, ready to indicate off his expertise – extra on this later.
He additionally would not dodge questions in regards to the stadiums he is performed at or the gamers he is confronted throughout his profession. Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium has the very best altering rooms, apparently; apparently, contemplating they have been solely promoted this season, Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road the worst. “No disrespect”.
A fast take a look at the fixtures confirms solely 4 Premier League groups have performed Luton Town at Kenilworth Road this season: West Ham, Wolves, Burnley, Spurs. Then there’s the date of our interview, the afternoon of Sunday 22 October. If Dide performs for West Ham, he has simply half an hour afterwards to kick off in opposition to Aston Villa, at Villa Park. Even Kylian Mbappe is not that fast.
Would he actually slender it down by this a lot? Could he be a newer Premier League signing who performed Luton beforehand within the Championship? Or may his Luton reply be a slip-up?
‘I see issues from afar’
Dide insists he is the actual deal. “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion,” he says. “Obviously we made the decision [to be anonymous] and we ran with it. It kind of organically happened. Nothing was really thought out to trick people… The main thing for me is the music rather than the football player. I guess fans and the public ran with all these different opinions, which is cool. But it was definitely not a marketing trick.”
He says his favorite participant of all time is Arsenal hero Thierry Henry – a clue to his crew, possibly? – and the best participant he has come up in opposition to is not too long ago retired former Chelsea and Real Madrid star Eden Hazard. The most annoying factor about being a Premier League footballer is “not being able to go to Tesco or something like that… you don’t really have a life outside of football, there’s always eyes on you”. It’s a reasonably customary reply on the worst points of movie star – but when true, suggests he may very well be on the extra high-profile finish of the celebrity scale.
Giving a reality most would not know in regards to the league, he provides a reasonably detailed reply about how referees clarify modifications and new laws to groups firstly of every season. And his tackle VAR? “Obviously it’s good because it makes it fair, but it kind of takes out the emotion.”
He speaks slowly, pausing usually and contemplating his responses. He refers to “we”, which is Dide and his supervisor, Shola Akins, one among apparently only a few individuals to know his actual identification. The music is launched by their label BLVCKROSE Ltd and Akins, who has beforehand labored as a music editor, says they’ve recognized one another for just a few years.
The anonymity “protects myself, protects other football players as well”, Dide says, as a result of his lyrics do not simply inform his personal tales. “It might be about my teammate, for example.” They additionally soak up politics, with Thrill tackling knife crime and poverty: “F*** being rich, I’d rather help the poor/ Government’s got no remorse/ And Rishi Sunak couldn’t help the cause/ So here’s Dide spitting peace tryna wipe the floor.”
“I see things from afar and I feel like, especially at the moment, there’s a lot of stuff going on, a lot of people need support,” he says. “A lot of the communities and the young people, some people don’t have places to live. The economy at the moment ain’t great, prices are rising. And I feel like Rishi Sunak and the government, obviously they’re responsible for that. I think that specific lyric was more of a cry out for help for our community.”
‘Footballers are human beings – we do have emotions’
Players can usually face criticism on and off the pitch, he says, giving one more reason for his masks. “Every game we get criticised, when we win, when we draw, whether you play bad, whether you play good. Adding something outside of football is just adding more [potential for] criticism. So it was easy for me to make that decision to try and keep the music separate. And, you know, they’re two different things. My effort and my concentration towards football is 100%.”
Dide says he has come to see making music as a type of remedy, a solution to “let it all out”. Is psychological well being a problem within the sport? “I don’t want to seem like we don’t get support because we do,” he says. “Obviously the PFA are big on mental health and supporting the players… but definitely mental health is a big thing in football.
“Lots of people do not actually get to see what goes on behind the scenes… whether or not you are taking part in one minute and also you’re dropped, whether or not you are injured for nevertheless many weeks. People do not actually see how that may have an effect on you as a human being. That’s undoubtedly one of many major matters I need to contact on within the music, as a result of individuals want to know that footballers are human beings as properly… we do have emotions, we do have issues we’re going by outdoors of soccer as properly.”
Dide says he hopes to motivate younger footballers and fans, “unfold a optimistic vibe”, as well as detail “the highs and lows”. Following the release of his first mixtape, Who Is Dide?, featuring tracks including Derby Day and Tactical Foul, in September, how does he answer the titular question? “I really feel like Dide is a voice for soccer gamers, for the game.”
He has apparently been taking part in soccer, his “first love”, since he was six, says it’s all he has ever thought-about as a profession. Music, he reveals, is a ardour for lots of gamers behind the scenes however was by no means one thing he all the time deliberate to pursue critically. “One day we had training, we had the day off the next day, me and my teammates thought: why not? Let’s go studio… It kind of just progressed into what it is. It wasn’t really something I planned to do, but it’s just another way of expressing myself.”
Clarifying, he says his teammates stay at the hours of darkness. “A lot of us go into the studio just for fun, but no one really knows how far it’s gone.” But a few of them have their suspicions. “They ask me, like, ‘Oh, is it you?’… But just the same way that it can be me, it could be someone else. So there’s no real one thing that would make it be, you know, one football player.”
The masks options roses as a result of his favorite color is rose gold, he says, which definitely seems like a reputable reply for somebody who may afford rose gold jewelry. Both the masks and the title Dide include clues to who he’s, he provides. “As the music comes out, it will kind of make sense… Maybe I might reveal myself in the future. Who knows?”
Some have questioned how knowledgeable footballer may dedicate a lot time to a different enterprise. Dide admits he has simply in the future off per week, generally two, “depending on if we win or get a good result”. His free time comes within the night “when you’re at home chilling by yourself, or with your family, whatever. That’s when I start writing music… or playing FIFA with my teammates. It’s not something I have to go out my way to do because I’m at home anyway”.
What do the consultants say?
Trying to unravel all of it, we spoke to a soccer author, a music skilled and an accent coach to get their ideas.
British grime DJ and hip-hop skilled Alex de Lacey, an assistant professor of well-liked music on the University of Groningen within the Netherlands, says the attention-grabbing factor about Dide is the crossover between soccer and leisure. David Beckham set the precedent for this again within the Nineties together with his strikes into style, and John Barnes is sort of as well-known now for his rap on New Order’s World In Motion, England’s 1990 World Cup music, as he’s for his soccer. Believe it or not, Eric Cantona is at the moment on tour after releasing his first single, and not too long ago there was a political crossover, too, most notably by Marcus Rashford’s social campaigning.
“You saw it in the ’90s, some kind of engagement between Britpop and football and this kind of conflation in culture. But UK rap and drill and football is much more tied together… there was the grime clash between Bradley Wright-Phillips and Yannick Bolasie. And now what we’re seeing is musicians and footballers hanging out, socialising, and this sense of proximity is much more pronounced than it was before.”
Alex says “a lot of work” has gone into Dide’s music, with a thought-about strategy taken and “super high production values”. The thriller surrounding the claimed Premier League participant identification is “very clever”, however “the music itself backs it up,” he says. “It would be harder to succeed in this way if he wasn’t a good rapper.”
He says Dide’s actual identification truly would not matter as a lot as what he represents – “a reflection of this increasing overlap between football, music, entertainment” – and the purpose at which individuals discover out “means it’s no longer as interesting”. As an Arsenal fan, nevertheless, he says it could be thrilling to find the rapper is a Gunner. “They’re also very hot on their music partnerships, they had Pusha T in the third kit recently. But it’s all just conjecture – which I guess is the point of it.”
He continues: “A lot of young men and women growing up in London, in the inner city… they have a proximity to this culture in a way that means they probably did rap when they were kids. So they kind of grew up rapping, listening to the same tunes, playing football… they say the main way to succeed is through football or through rap. I think that’s something which has been cultivated over the past 20 years with young people in their everyday social life. So the likelihood of this happening more and more just seems pretty apparent.”
Voice and accent coach Ashley Howard had a take heed to Dide’s tracks and talking voice to see if he may shed any mild on his identification, analysing his music and speech in opposition to the speech of a number of the frontrunners. The rapper’s accent falls into the class of “multicultural London English”, he says, which is influenced by east London in addition to the Caribbean, Africa and India, and now heard primarily in south London but in addition additional afield across the capital and different elements of the UK.
There are occasional intonations in Dide’s rapping that may recommend Jamaican affect or heritage, which could recommend Michail Antonio and even Raheem Sterling, he says. However, this is also right down to the distinction between Dide’s talking voice and rapping voice, he provides, as there is usually a distinction.
But you additionally need to take heed to the location and rhythm of somebody’s accent as properly, which he says makes him rule out Antonio. Iwobi and Ojo are possibles, he says, however Saka is most comparable. “I think it could be his voice… Dide’s voice is quite far forward, there’s a very light and open quality to his rapping. And I think Bukayo’s voice lends itself a bit more towards that.”
So what do soccer consultants assume? Mark White, a author for the FourFourTwo journal and web site, is sceptical. “Given how much fans study players these days, given how nothing is secret in football, I think it would be very, very unlikely to be a Premier League footballer,” he says. “I might be wrong, but if Dide is actually a Premier League footballer, I’ve got the feeling he’s had to throw people off the scent with his lyrics a little bit.”
White has met Nketiah and would not imagine he’s the person behind the masks. Of all of the theories, like our voice coach he thinks England star Saka’s talking voice is the closest match. “But it feels like that would be too good to be true, if one of the best players in the world at the moment was also moonlighting as a rapper. I think that would just be too exciting.”
So… can Dide take a penalty?
After we chat, Dide swaps his trainers for soccer boots and places the ball on the spot – declaring the difficulties in doing this whereas sporting his masks. The first couple of photographs are simply saved by one of many younger boys from the group who has fortunately provided to play goalie, however he quickly will get into his stride.
Is he convincing? I undoubtedly need to imagine it – and there is not any cause why knowledgeable footballer could not even be a gifted rapper. Based on his expertise? It’s exhausting to say, though it is price noting the masks as soon as once more, the small five-a-side objective, and in addition that he would not look like treating his photographs with the gravitas of, say, a cup closing. Plus, he would not be the primary English participant to overlook a penalty – although I do not think about the stress of scoring in entrance of a Sky News crew is kind of the identical as a recreation watched by hundreds of thousands.
As for what’s subsequent for Dide, there are apparently plans to play reside exhibits sooner or later, working round his schedule. And there’s nothing in his contract that may cease him from releasing music, he says, whether or not he ever reveals his identification or not.
“If anything [the music is] a positive. I’m trying to inspire other people, inspire other football players to come out and speak their truth… and just express themselves. Obviously, football is the main priority and if I was coming in late to training or whatever, then obviously that would be a problem. But I like doing music in my spare time. To me, it’s better than going out clubbing or whatever.”
On the hypothesis, he says the strangest concept he has come throughout is that Dide is Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire. “To me, that’s funny. Obviously I know Harry Maguire quite well… but I don’t really look at social media too much.”
Instead, his “main happiness” comes from the optimistic response and “what people are saying about the actual music itself”, he says. “Long may that continue.”
Are we any nearer to answering the query: who’s Dide? Maybe a bit of. But it seems to be just like the thriller will keep alive for some time but.
Source: information.sky.com”