“My entry into music? Boy, if we’re gonna talk about from before I was serious, then we’re gonna have to go back from when I was a baby. Cah, you know when you come from a cultured household that’s all you’re hearing.” Dotty is on the cusp of releasing his first project, entitled ‘London Living: Collection of Sounds’ it’s been thoughtfully curated and years in the making.
Talent is oozing out of every pore in the South these days; with more and more musicians making their play for the top table and for Dotty, that means crafting music that resonates. “There’s a big difference between Rap and Honest Rap,” he states plainly, “I can easily sit down and write a song about bullshit, or about nothing and it will probably go off. [But] with my music especially, I like to step into different worlds – whether that’s me singing or even if it’s just holding a little melody d’you understand?”
Coming from the risky roads of Thornton Heath, Dotty has been armed not only with that cultured home training but the kind of savvy composure you only get from South. “I think I wrote my first lyric when I was like nine or 10,” he recalls “talking about bare wrestling stuff, then going to my friend Pro. His dad was like a big DJ back in the day, so he used to have a studio in his house fill up with vinyl. We used to go there, record there from when we was like 14.”
A few years later, “from 15, 16 an’ dat, I’d say I was getting a little recognition in the ends for my music – everyone thought I was better than I thought I was. I guess I didn’t really believe in myself them times there.” And, although he may not have started out in Rap feeling like King Arthur; Dotty focused on refining his style and finding his voice. Thoughtful and introspective, Dotty takes the concept of Honest Rap very seriously. His 2017 single release ‘Beautiful’ featuring Bobii Lewis was hymn to the women and a chance for quiet reflection; a side that is as much his style as anything else.
With his upcoming playlist due to drop imminently, Dotty serves up a sneak peak in the shape of new single release: ‘Bless’, produced by Sokari. Directed by Ray Fiasco, ‘Bless’ is a far out neon trip, Dotty frees up his Trap style flow and nighttime swagger “this is just about explaining that I’m bless. Not all the time I gotta be talking about the down and the negative stuff. I’m bless init. As soon as I heard that beat, I was like yeah, I have to attack this. I have to. When you hear the beat you can’t stop knocking your head.”
London Living: Collection of Sounds is on the way, it’s the moment he’s been working for and Dotty can’t wait to show off his range, “I don’t like calling it a mixtape or EP or album; it’s more like a playlist to me. Basically, a variety of different kinds of styles from myself. I don’t wanna be put in a box to say, yeah, he only does this – so with this project, it being my first as well – what better than making everybody know exactly what sounds come from me?”
