INTERVIEW | RAPPER DVNZ ON DREAMS, GROWTH & STAYING TRUE TO SELF

By Rishma • On Interviews

In a rap land­scape often driv­en by trends and for­mu­las, South Lon­don artist DVNZ is carving out his own lane, one groun­ded in reflec­tion, hon­esty, and lyr­ic­al depth. His latest EP, Dreams, is a test­a­ment to that vis­ion: a genre-blend­ing, soul-search­ing body of work shaped by quiet late-night walks, can­did emo­tion­al insight, and an unshak­able con­nec­tion to his roots. From boom-bap to R&B, the pro­ject flows with both grit and grace, show­cas­ing DVNZ’s sig­na­ture pen­man­ship and evolving sound.

DVNZ opens up to us about the mind­set behind Dreams, the free­dom of cre­at­ing without con­straints, and how stay­ing true to him­self remains the core of his artistry. Wheth­er he’s explor­ing love, ambi­tion, or loss, DVNZ’s music is as access­ible as it is per­son­al — invit­ing listen­ers into a world that’s real, raw, and resonant.

‘Dreams’ feels deeply per­son­al and reflect­ive. What moment or mind­set sparked the first track on this project?

A lot of my songs come to me on late night walks through my estate. There’s a cer­tain energy where i’m from, a lot of bright lights and tall build­ings. The first song sounds how the Raq feels to me. I feel the first track does a good job of intro­du­cing the pro­ject, from a con­cep­tu­al and emo­tion­al standpoint.

You’ve men­tioned the concept of auto­pi­lot and day­dream­ing. How did that men­tal space shape the mood and sound of the EP?

It allowed me to cre­ate freely, with no pres­sure. Some­times you cre­ate a pro­ject with a title or concept in mind and you can feel boxed in or try too hard to remind people of what they’re listen­ing to. The space I was in men­tally made it easy for me to cre­ate good music while express­ing how I felt about my Dreams.

The pro­duc­tion on ‘Dreams’ blends boom-bap, soul, R&B, and hints of drill. How did the col­lab­or­a­tion with Off­beats push or expand your sound?

It def­in­itely made me take more time with my cre­at­ive pro­cess. I wanted to wait for a feel­ing to come to me, rather than try­ing to think of a par­tic­u­lar hook or verse. For example, I had Out­side for 2 months before I wrote to it. No pun inten­ded but I was actu­ally out­side when I wrote it.

Was there a par­tic­u­lar track on the EP that chal­lenged you cre­at­ively or emo­tion­ally dur­ing the writ­ing or record­ing process?

I would say Still Dream­ing. It chal­lenged me both cre­at­ively and emo­tion­ally. There was a point where no mat­ter what I done I wasn’t happy with it. The ori­gin­al chor­us was dif­fer­ent and I ended up re record­ing it a couple times. In the end I had to just send it because I real­ised I would nev­er be 100% happy with it. I heard a quote a few years ago, they said “ A true artist nev­er fin­ishes their work, they aban­don it. If they fin­ished it, they’d nev­er fin­ish it”. That was me on Still Dreaming

You’ve said this EP is for “lit­er­ally every­one”. What does access­ib­il­ity in rap mean to you, and how do you approach it without com­prom­ising authenticity?

It means everything to me. There’s a lot of people that would appre­ci­ate Rap if they weren’t so caught up on Rap’s perception.

If you take me for example, my appear­ance could be seen as aggress­ive but half of my cata­logue is about love and life. It’s import­ant to make an effort to con­sider a wider audi­ence when cre­at­ing, I would nev­er want someone to feel like they’re not qual­i­fied to listen to my music.

Hon­estly, and without mean­ing to come across con­ceited, I just tell my truth. There’s always going to be someone out there that can relate to truth as we’re all strug­gling and liv­ing with the same issues.

‘So1o’ and ‘Tek Time’ feel espe­cially intro­spect­ive. Can you break down the themes or stor­ies behind those tracks?

Funny enough, those are the tracks that made the pro­ject what it is. the EP had a totally dif­fer­ent feel before Off­beats sent those two track to me halfway through pro­duc­tion. Solo is a spin on my love for the West­coast. I listen to a lot of artists from The West but I was locked in with a Rap­per called Bris from Sac­ra­mento who unfor­tu­nately lost his life a few years ago. He was a big influ­ence on that track and as much as it has mean­ing to it, it’s the track on the EP where I’m hav­ing the most fun. Tek Time on the oth­er hand touches on inter­ac­tions I’ve had in the past with women and how things can some­times move a bit too fast, without prop­er found­a­tion. I like to keep com­posed where pos­sible and not jump at every shiny thing that’s presen­ted to me.

You’ve built a rep for pen­man­ship and flu­id rhyme schemes. How do you keep evolving lyr­ic­ally while stay­ing true to your core?

First and fore­most, I’ve always said I’m a stu­dent of the game. I’m a massive music fan and listen to a wide range of genres and I feel like I have a good under­stand­ing of music, object­ively. I’ve always been able to string words togeth­er in a unique way. I remem­ber when I wrote my first 8bar and my friends didn’t believe it was me. I just be myself, unapo­lo­get­ic­ally and I’m happy people con­nect to it.

How do you bal­ance vul­ner­ab­il­ity and con­fid­ence in your music, espe­cially when deal­ing with top­ics like loss and ambition?

At the moment I’m in a really peace­ful and hon­est place. It’s been a jour­ney but I finally feel con­fid­ent and happy with who I am and what I’ve been through. I think song by song, for the last few years I’ve been get­ting more and more hon­est. It’s more so just being more of myself in my music because I’m both vul­ner­able and con­fid­ent in real life.

The UK rap scene is packed with tal­ent right now. How do you carve out your own lane and avoid get­ting boxed in?

By not adher­ing to the stand­ard format. A lot of people come into the game with the last new­comers play­book, so every­one starts look­ing and sound­ing the same. No one is like me so if I just be myself, being dif­fer­ent will be the easi­est part.

Lastly, what does “suc­cess” look like to you at this point in your career, and how does Dreams reflect where you’re headed next?

At this point, being able to sup­port the people I love through my music would be suc­cess to me. I’ve made music all my life and regard­less of where it goes, I’m Still going to cre­ate because it’s in my soul. As much as it’s some­thing I love doing, I can see it’s pick­ing up momentum so I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want it to go as far as it can. I think Dreams was just a pos­it­ive affirm­a­tion in the form of an EP. On every track I’m talk­ing about my dreams and the things I want from life, I don’t think it’s a coin­cid­ence that it was the pro­ject that’s got the most trac­tion from my catalogue.

The new EP, ‘Dreams’ OUT NOW on all stream­ing platforms

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.
My Facebook profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Instagram profile

Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.