Dapz On The Map Has Officially ‘Landed’ With His Debut Album
It’s been in the pipeline for more than a minute, but Dapz On The Map’s debut album, Landed, has finally arrived after pre-release singles “Contingency” and “Give Thanks”.
Back in March, the Birmingham native also released a quick two-tracker called Connecting Flights, which featured “Never Ever” with Infamous Dimez and “Hunger Games” with Swifta Beater, and although neither of those tracks are included on Landed, both producers have contributed beats to the LP, alongside Thomas Mellor, Corey K, Avey and TRC.
“The best way I can describe what I feel with Landed, is that it relates to a film called Flight with Denzel Washington,” Dapz told TRENCH in a recent interview. “It’s based on a pilot who has this huge responsibility, lives on his shoulders, but he’s an alcoholic, and they don’t know that. A plane crashed that he was flying—he landed it upside down, killed about 8 people, but a lot survived and it was classed as heroic.
“When they examined him and he was tested with cocaine and alcohol, they wanted his head. But he’s a pilot, a loyal servant, and he’s a good guy. Landed is similar in the sense of the responsibility I have on my shoulders: I have kids, I have a partner, I have family members who wanna see me win, I have my own pressures as well. And even though I have all this responsibility, I’m expected to fly the plane. No one wants excuses—they don’t care about if you had a good or bad day at the office—they expect you to land this plane.”
Presenting a mature, more grown sound, the album’s still very much a grime album, but we get to see a different side to Dapz here. Besides grime, the other defining element of Landed is the overwhelming presence of R&B, and much of that comes from the man himself who handles the vast majority of the smoother, more melodic moments, save for the album’s only guest artist, fellow Brummie and singer-songwriter Pheleba, fka PhePhe, on “Beautiful”.
It feels like a watershed moment for Dapz, who’s made some big creative decisions for this record. So far, it seems to be paying off, with extra press attention and some impressive numbers. Hit play on Landed below and see what all the fuss is about.
