A broadly talented and stylistically explorative rapper emerging from London’s south, Deema has earned in embryonic stripes across the past half decade with an array of slick releases, including his 2021 standout EP “Rainbow”. This autumn, the Peckham-born artist has been flaunting a matured and developed approach, which has now amalgamated into a new body of work, “DOG WITH A £”.

Boasting features from underground heavyweights Bawo, David Armada and BlazeYL, the project sees Deema sharpen his craft while expanding his sonic perspective, with forays into a variety of rap sub-sounds. A captivating lyricist, the young star’s wordplay and thematic ideas hold together the compelling and multifarious musicality. Wonderland asked Deema to take us through the work, track-by-track.

Listen to “DOG WITH A £”…

Read Deema’s thoughts…

“DOG WITH A £”
“DOG WITH A £” is the intro and title track to the project partly because it has the coldest name but also because of the sound and atmosphere of the track. The reversed part at the start is experimental while the main body of the track is more classic UK Rap and that’s exactly how I wanted the project to feel. The singing is heavily D-Block Europe influenced while the beginning is something I would’ve pulled from Kendrick or Brockhampton at some point. I’m particularly into the start because the reversed music is completely original and has vocals from both me and the tracks producer Cotton weaved into it. 

“BERRYGRAPE” 
This might be my favourite track on the project purely because of the dumb lyrics and bounce on the 808’s. Probably shouldn’t say this, but if you listen to Drake’s “Away From Home” you’ll hear a very similar bass line. Around the same time Lil Yachty had had a crazy run of singles, Baby Keem and Kendrick did “Hillbillies” – I wanted to rap in that kind of way. More bar for bar than a whole verse that had a consistent topic and so that’s why you hear things like “Shorty said I got three legs like a tripod”. 

“FACT SHAMING” 
Another one of my favourite tracks on the project. Just like BERRYGRAPE this was produced by Micha Cooper and Parkland. I did however have to fight with them to put the Amerie sample in after annoyingly singing it to them saying “it will bang bro trust me”. Eventually, Micha gave in, downloaded “1 Thing” and split the vocal from the instrumental. Straight away it banged, I mean what can I say, I’m a visionary. We eventually got one of Micha’s friends to re-sing the hook. This is always a ballache but it actually sounded great so we were chuffed. Another thing I love about the sample is that it is the same one grime producer Lolingo used for Elf Kid’s hit “Golden Boy”. 

“LFW” 
I actually made this song before ever going to Paris Fashion Week and I’ve always been skeptical about “going to LA to work” or PFW or anything that seemed too industry or clouty. But I attended this year and actually had the best time. I stayed with my close friend David Armada who sings on this track. I still stand by what I said, “it is not that cheap” and is “not that deep”. I’ve always felt people love to idolise New York, LA or Paris for creative scenes but people in those places chase and idolise London. It is classic grass is greener on the other side. So instead of naming the track PFW we went for LFW. 

“WAP” 
Even though this song might be the shortest it took the longest to finish. From loosing parts to different features this song has had so many versions. I’m very glad Blaze jumped on and it is now mastered and out. It was produced by Sammo. Sammo has been there literally from the start of my career. My first ever studio session was with him and Earbuds at Heavy Trackerz Studio. I was 15! Sammo offered me mushrooms then revoked his offer when remembering how old I am, he then offered them to me again saying “I’m not your dad though”. 

“GRAND CANYON”
This song was only supposed to be an interlude hence the name “GRAND CANYON”. It still serves the same purpose but it was originally just the one chorus acting as a bridge between “UK SYNTH” and “WAP”. I was encouraged to keep the verse and eventually, it just felt right to. Really love the hook on this and it’s not really like anything I’ve ever released before. 

“UK SYNTH”
Bawo came to Dom’s old studio originally to record a verse on “Where U?” a song from my short EP last year. He ended up recording a verse on two of the EP tracks and we also made two new songs. UK SYNTH was the last thing we made that night and it was the best out of the bunch. Eventually, I made the decision to take off his verse from “Where U?” and just stick to releasing “UK SYNTH” when the time was right. We both knew it was the best of the bunch. How can Bawo say “10 PS5’s in the boot”. Are you dumb? Dom Valentino produced this one and his alternative influence shines through. Personally, I wanted the song to have a streets/spoken work geeza kind of verse on it so that is exactly what I went for. 

“C4LL MY PHONE”
I’d never made a song like this but somehow it just happened. Hyperpop isn’t my bag and the super mumbled verse isn’t so much either but I like projects that have a wildcard somewhere in them. This song is the wildcard in my opinion. So people will hate it, hopefully some feel the opposite. 

“LILREDWHIP”
My girlfriend used to pick me up from work in her red Citron. It was her first car, she was my first true love. I had to put it in a song just couldn’t resist. Micha Cooper produced this one and it’s actually the first song to be recorded in my room that I’ve released! Heavily influenced by rappers like Smino and Isaiah Rashaad. Without Monte Booker where would we all be? 

“WOLF STREET”
It took me months to actually place this track on the project. There was a link to the project with this song missing even though I knew it would have to go on one day. FACT SHAMING used to close out the project but if this was going to go on everyone told me it felt like the outro and so that’s what I ended up doing. I love how the last thing you hear is “money is evil” as the project is called “DOG WITH A £” it’s just a subtle reminder that these are the good times and the simple things should be valued even though we aspire for more.