Danny Seth is on a mission. The U.K. rapper who became a Los Angeles transplant five years ago, came with a lot more emotional baggage than most imports from across the pond. Despite his internal struggles and family woes, the British spitter is redefining what it means to come from the U.K. Step 1: his Perception LP, a collection of personal narratives that plays out like a motion picture. With dream sequences and production from his two go-to producers, Seth’s idea of breaking the mold is rapping like there isn’t one.
Allow him to break down Perception in his own words below.—As told to Adelle Platon
Coming to America: I moved to L.A. five years ago and I kind of had this thing where [I saw] all UK rappers trying to get really big in England and come to America [trying to fit in] with the commercial rap here. Everyone in America is like, ‘This is what you call rap music’ and everyone in England is like, ‘You sold out’ so they lose both of their fanbases. For me, it’s kind of like I grew up listening to The Clipse, The Neptunes, that sound. As much as I love grind music and UK rap, I couldn’t really relate to it. When I decided to take it seriously a few years ago, I decided to go to America. I kind of put my feelings aside towards England, whether they’re going to ride with me or not because I know that if I wanted to build an underground following in America that England might not accept me at first because I’m going against the grain and I haven’t tried to do that before. So the whole story of the tape is it’s called Perception. I’m white, from London doing U.S. hip-hop so you’re already going to have a preconceived perception about me. The track listing is three sequences so it’s like monumental how I dream, how I arrive because time is of the essence and never forgets it but as we get into Perception, some people might not see that.
The art of rap: Some people will look straight past it to artwork is hidden symbology relating to one of my favorite rap albums from the UK. The story of how I scored the whole take as a one track so it’s seventeen tracks. The first couple [songs] were scored together. The intro is basically a coming home at 4:30 in the morning, I’m drunk and I’m venting my anger and talking about the subjects I’m going to be talking in straight bars which has never kind of been done before so it is kind of dark but the whole ‘tape starts dark and it gets lighter because as [the listener] comes towards the end of the tape, it’s like the homecoming.
The slow and steady grind: I do everything. My manager, my best friend, my two producers—one of them is my best friend from London and the other one is a kid I found on SoundCloud from Finland. It’s crazy so I feel like if you keep the team kind of small and they get the vision, doing what I do… I’ve had so many people go against me and tell me that I can’t do this or I can’t do that. I kind of grin with it but this is the direction I’m going, I’m not trying to be here for six months. I’m trying to be here for 10 years or I want to create a sustainable piece which, you know, I’ve been working on this [album] for three years. So, you know, I’ve seen so many people pop off around me with one-hit wonders and for me, it was so important to be [like], ‘Forget everyone else, let’s make history.’ Someone [told me] careers are symmetrical triangles. If you come up fast, it’s going even more down. If you build your pyramid slowly but surely, you can only sustain it. I feel like this tape is something you need to kind of sit with.
The British invasion: The idea behind [the artwork] is that my hand is covering America on the globe, I wanted to be naked because I felt like in this day in age we can just judge you as some swag rapper and I don’t want to be judged off of that. My logo is the Union Jack without the flag around it. My tag is the British are coming; the horn I’m holding kind of represents “we’re coming” and what they used in the war. The book on my foot actually says the ‘European discovery of America’. There’s a clock and a feather there that kind of symbolizes “Time is of the essence,” which is one of my favorites on the album … It’s so much symbology. Like my digital booklet. This was a letter that I received. One of the songs is called “Danny Darling,” which my stepmother [called me]. She was like a mother to me and one time I came home from L.A., my dad had moved to Spain without telling anyone and divorced my stepmom. I never saw her again so I wrote her tons of letters and finally one got through and this is the reply that she wrote to me. ‘I love you with all my heart but I can never see you again cause you remind me of your dad.’ The symbology of this is, like, I want to hold up my country but it’s killing me … That’s what I wanted to come across in this. I wanted you to know that I had doubters, I wanted you to know that I had race problems, I wanted you to know that England is important in this context. That’s the kind of message.
Knowing yourself: I think for me it was it was just finding myself and just realizing that I was playing into a market, where it was like, ‘Well I guess this what everyone expects me to become.’ And I guess that’s the easiest way for me to blow up. I took of my vision and was like, let me see if people actually want to hear what I’m saying. I think that the main part of this album—it’s just story.
In this day in age, everything is going to come out about me so I might as well just say it ’cause if it doesn’t come from my mouth then it comes from someone else. That’s why I like Drake so much because he’ll tell you he’s in love with a stripper. He’ll tell you these types of things which is real and I think the fashion of music goes in a cycle where it’s coming back to you wanting to hear stories and you can. I kind of want to take it back to, ‘This is my story.’ I’m white, I’m from London, I’m Jewish and I’m making U.S. hip-hop. As I said, you already have a preconceived notion about me without even hearing my music so I guess it’s kind of like I want to leave open for you to decide.