DigDat - Pain Built

Mixtape out now link in the bio

#painbuilt

I Know They Praying on my Down Fall. 🙏🏽

@digdat on Instagram

"I'm a rapper and I ain't really dangerous, only a fool would think that" - DigDat on Dig Dat

From South East London, drill rapper DigDat released his new mixtape this month 2 years after his first. I enjoyed Ei8ht Mile, so I was looking forward to hearing Pain Built. The mixtape is shorter than the last, with only 10 songs this time. What do I think about the mixtape as a whole? Honestly, it's nothing special.

His intro is definitely hard-hitting. The beat has a good bounce to it; it starts the mixtape off well. I like Intro a lot. Then we get to the next 2 songs. Die a G sounds very lazy to me; meanwhile Blue SVR does a little more for me in terms of the beat, but nothing memorable honestly. Going into the middle of the mixtape, we have Dottys Cost Jeans, Side of Da 9 Gotta Star and VV. Dotty Cost Jeans is short but does enough with how he attacks this song. Side of Da 9 Gotta Star has a fire beat and I like his flow, but I shouldn’t have to hear a drill rapper say “speed, speedy” in a song. VV was previously released as a single, I think it’s just okay.

Furthermore, we have his second pre-released single from the mixtape Assassin Creed; even though this one is also short, this was in a few of my playlists when it came out. Drawing to the end of the mixtape, we have Don’t Slip, Dig Dat (self-named song) and How High. Don’t Slip is much more aggressive than the majority of the mixtape, befitting the name Don’t Slip. I can find repetition of a phrase very annoying, but in this song it’s done with purpose when he uses his name. Dig Dat is also one of the better songs and the ones I enjoy on this tape. How High is the third pre-released single for this mixtape, my least favourite out of the other singles.

As a whole, his content is the same; jewellery, other people’s girls, drive-bys and being in jail – basically, drill. Some of the songs sounds like he’s probably reading from his phone by his delivery, but the overall production of the songs is dull; the drums are saving the songs. It’s as if the producers didn’t try to do much with the songs (maybe DigDat wanted is this way). There are no features on the entire mixtape. I don’t mind this because I like to see if an artist can shine on their own and show their creativity. However, for this mixtape, someone else to feature would’ve been refreshing. He uses the same flow pretty much throughout, so it would’ve been nice for him to experiment more or get other people to add something new. Plus, almost a third of the mixtape had already been out, and I didn’t feel like I got anything extra from the other songs. The whole mixtape seems like it was just him putting music out.

I’ll give this a 4.5 out of 10 as a whole. The whole mixtape just feels idle and lacklustre, but there are still some songs I like. I like DigDat as a rapper. He’s got one of those voices in drill that just sounds great over music; despite all of that, this mixtape is just disappointing. There are a few songs that I liked; Dig Dat, Assassin Creed and Intro. I didn’t gravitate towards the other two pre-released singles (VV and How High). This might have been done on purpose; DigDat has mentioned problems between him and his label, so this might be one of those projects that’s released just so he fulfils his deal. To add on, the mixtape cover is terrible. I see what he was trying to emulate, similar Meek Mill with the DC4 cover of his; I also understand the sentiment of showing his struggles and what he comes from, but I would expect better project covers in 2022 in all honestly. Hopefully DigDat can return to good form and give us something more meaningful; I think he is a raw talent in drill, and he has the ability to deliver.