The Enigmatic Dean Blunt 

By Evelyn Donnelly

British singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and contemporary artist Dean Blunt has never once limited himself. No singular genre defines him, no singular title brands him, no singular sound expresses the many sides of his creative identity. He has contributed to and created side projects such as Hype Williams, Babyfather, and Blue Iverson. He has collaborated with artists such as Arca, Skepta, and A$AP Rocky, and he has sampled artists like Kate Bush, The Pastels, and Big Star, among others. As a lover of all varieties of music, Blunt’s ability to pull from so many influences immediately entranced me. In my eyes, his body of work reflects the human experience in that it is everything, all at once. It cannot be defined as no person can be defined. The literal bluntness of his monotone voice, experimental, grungy beats, and masterful sampling makes Blunt unlike any artist witnessed before.  

It is known that Dean Blunt was born Roy Chukwuemeka Nnawuchi in Hackney, London, but much of his past and background is kept hidden from the public eye. He began his foray into the music scene by playing guitar with indie group Graffiti Island. However, he first received minor popularity in the late 2000s after joining Russian-born Inga Copeland in a previously formed avant-garde group named Hype Williams. The pair continued to collaborate after breaking from this group and created their album Black is Beautiful in 2012. Unfortunately, the album is only available on YouTube, but other collaborations between the two include the eerily beautiful track “The Narcissist,” that samples Julee Cruise’s ‘Float Alone,’ and ‘The Redeemer,’ on Blunt’s solo albums The Narcissist II and The Redeemer, respectively. Following these collaborations, the pair announced that they would no longer be working together in 2013. 

Despite parting ways with Copeland, Blunt’s solo career had only just begun, and he released his most popular album to date, Black Metal, in 2014. This album contains his most-played track ‘100’ which at its core features a sample of 90s dream pop tune “Over My Shoulder” by The Pastels. The lines Blunt repeats “I’m dying to meet you,” and “Though everybody says I’m wrong,” when combined with the childlike simplicity of the sample convey a reminiscence and yearning that is beautiful to experience.  

In 2015, Blunt started Babyfather, which was his first side project since the beginning of his solo career. Straying from Blunt’s usual melancholic tunes, the trio comprised of Blunt, DJ Escrow (alias of South London artist James Massiah) and Gassman D made politically leaning hip hop tracks with harsher rap and dub rhythms. Their releases include 419 (2016), “BBF” Hosted by DJ Escrow (2016) and single ‘1471’ (2022). With this project a louder and bolder side of Blunt can be seen, as he steps into a variation of his usual melancholy.  

Continuing with his venture into hip-hop, Blunt collaborated several times with well-known American rapper A$AP Rocky to create songs such as ‘LONDON TONIGHT FREESTYLE’ (2022) featuring British rappers Skepta and Novelist, ‘CHANCER’, from Blunt’s 2018 album Soul on Fire, ‘STOOZY’, (2021) and ‘19’ featuring Sauce Walka from 2020 album Zushi. Blunt also helped produce and contribute materials to Rocky’s 2018 album Testing. All these collaborations feature more aggressive styles than his work with Babyfather, which can be attributed to Blunt’s ability to adapt to the influences of his collaborators and move fluidly between genres. 

However, Blunt did not stop with rap, and a third side project of his, Blue Iverson, showed yet another layer of his artistic identity as he experimented with light, jazzy R&B. Their stand-alone album Hotep was recorded in 2017 in Los Angeles with studio musicians such as guitarist Jeff Gitelman of the Stepkids, and vocalists Jennah Bell and Akua. Despite such contributions, Blunt’s efforts still made up much of the album’s sound, with him playing guitar, drums, and keyboard, as well as producing and mixing the release. Honorable mentions from the album include bubbly ‘Hush Money’ and seductive ‘Jennah’s Interlude.’  

Blunt continues to make music as a solo artist today, with his most recent album Black Metal 2, the sequel to Black Metal, being released in 2021. Returning to the breathtaking pensiveness of Black Metal, tracks such as ‘NIL BY MOUTH’ contain staggered and simple but impactful phrases like “Daddy’s broke/What a joke” and “Future’s bleak/Ain’t it me?” With its heart-rending finale ‘the rot’, Blunt captures this middle ground between desperation and hope, the space where everything can be felt all at once.  

2023 saw the release of single ‘Rinsed’, which sounds like an intimate but conflicted love letter between Blunt and British singer TYSON. Over a distorted sample of Alice in Chains’ ‘Down in a Hole’, the few lines on the song include TYSON’s impassioned “Was it a memory? Why you gonna leave me in my dreams,” which communicates an almost disjointed yearning.   

At the end of the day, it is almost impossible to describe Dean Blunt merely in words. His sound is an uncapturable and shapeshifting force of nature that represents the enigmatic artist himself. It represents a man who limits his public appearances, who sent his bodyguard to receive his Philip Hall Radar Award at the 2015 NME Awards, and who listed a toy Foxtons estate agent’s Mini Cooper that was splattered with pink paint and filled with marijuana for £250 on eBay. He is ambiguous and unpredictable, and it is clear that I, along with his many other admirers, have barely seen the tip of the iceberg that is Dean Blunt.