Dutchavelli and M Huncho may both make drill music, but despite operating within the same genre, they honestly could not sound more different. But they are also two of the hottest artists in the scene right now, so them coming together on a track does make sense, even if their different styles my not mesh seamlessly on paper. But good we don’t judge songs on what we think they may sound like, rather using the actual, ya know, song, to make our judgements.
Take M Huncho. The North London artist is best known for his auto-tune assisted crooning. He varies his flows up throughout his songs and can rap his ass off when he wants to, but it always has a melodic twist to it. His voice is pleasant and smooth, even if I wish it was a little more expressive sometimes.
Then we have Dutchavelli. Hailing from Birmingham, he is the brother of UK Artist Steflon Don. In addition to that, he also has the voice of someone who came out of the womb smoking a pack of cigarettes every day and then follows the up with a razorblades mouthwash. I bet he flosses with barbed wire. He sounds intimidating. He looks intimidating. His bars are intimidating. He’s so intimidating in fact, that every comment section on all of his music videos are filled with jokes such as: “When Dutchavelli plays GTA, he chases the police,” or “When Dutch was born, he drove his parents home from the hospital,” and “When the boogeyman goes to bed, he checks under his bed for Dutchavelli.”
All of that makes it all the more surprising when they announced the collab track “Burning,” which was released as a single, but also appeared on the GRM Daily’s 10 year anniversary mixtape. Adding to the surprise is the fact that this song ends up going over extremely well. Instead of sounding like two artists who should have just stuck to their respective flavors of drill, they end up complementing each other fantastically.
The production is handled by prolific product Quincytellem, and he delivers the goods here. The beat consists of a nice plucked acoustic guitar (maybe a lute? A mandolin? I need to read up on acoustic string instruments. I’m a fucking amateur) complimented with a flute that comes and goes with M Huncho’s melodic chorus. He quite literally brings the melody whenever he appears. Additionally, the very first hit of sub bass feels like it was delivered by a Bruce Lee roundhouse kick after he strapped rockets to his leg. That bass hit is perfectly synced with Duchavelli as he says, “Free smoke got the city all burning,” rupturing your ear buds as he says “burning.”
Subject matter wise, there’s a ton of flexing from Huncho and Dutch, mixed in with bits of their personal lives and experiences as they traversed life and found success with their music. With Dutch, we get the aggressive bars that you’d be used to if you heard his previous tracks, “Only If You Knew,” “Surely,” and “I Dunno” with Tion Wayne and Stromzy. All of those tracks are well worth checking out as well. He explains how he has a sensitive trigger finger, and has his girls carries his guns for him in designer bags. Dutch really flexes his sense of humor when he says, “Don’t care if that chick can’t dance/ Tryna make sure that the phone line twerkin,” before exclaiming “See how they wanna ride this wave?/ Didn’t see their face when I was sofa surfing.” Even someone like Dutchavelli has people trying to ride his coattails now that he’s out of prison and flourishing once again.
Dutch ends the first verse by explaining that, “If this music ting don’t work, there’s one thing that I know for certain, I’m in the trap…” and M Huncho glides in seamlessly like a friend finishing his sentence with, “I keep on servin.” It’s such a smooth transition and the perfect way to introduce M Huncho to the track. Immediately, we get a peak into the life that M Huncho used to live, and it’s a rather bleak one. “I served up Martin, now he’s on a flying carpet/ Walked in on Martin piping his arm in the morning, moving lethargic/ Wonder where he is right now, man, I hope that brudda didn’t OD/ You know you got that special bond always with a certain fiend.” Not the type of story that will bring a smile to your face, but it makes his journey all the more impressive.
Lines such as that, and Dutch’s “I was on the prison phone to bro/ I don’t know when they’ll let me go,” give a song like this a more personal quality, and make the toasts to their more recent successes feel even more celebratory. Hearing them trade off bars about how they came from nothing and now have so much money that their pockets, hell, even their closets, aren’t big enough to hold all of it is simply exhilerating. It really does come off as two friends reveling in their life stories and how far they’ve. And that really touches on what makes this song work so well. It’s the chemistry that M Huncho and Dutchavelli have on the track that pull it all together so well. I believe I shared a similar feeling with Unknown T, V9 and KO on “Aven9ers,” and this feels like a track that was a true collaboration as well. They didn’t just send over some by-the-numbers verses to each other to make some waves since they’re both huge names in the drill scene right now. You simply don’t get that vibe, as they share similar sentiments, and even bars with each other as they trade off during the last verse.
Before the final iteration of the short chorus, Dutchavelli finishes off his verse with “Beatfreakz when I tell him to freeze/ I don’t wanna get blood on my jeans/ Tell my mum that I love her to pieces/ If I die, give my dough to my nephews and nieces, it’s Velli.” And that sums up Dutch pretty well, in just a few bars. The danger and violence that comes with this lifestyle will always be present until you go completely clear, but he also knows that supporting his family and those close to him is always the number one goal. It’s always interesting to me to see how artists decide to juxtapose those ideas together, as it’s a logical sentiment to hold. And with Dutchavelli, it’s a nice little emotional touch, even if it is still emanating from the pits of hell AKA his vocal chords.
In the end, M Huncho and Dutchavelli blessed us with one of the more unexpected, well executed collaborations of the year. The video has high production qualities, with a ton of sick graphics, and again, he see a real sense of chemistry between Dutchavelli and M Huncho as they actually perform the song together, instead of just rapping along as they stand in the same frame. Go check out “Burning,” as well as Dutchavelli’s other singles, and M Huncho’s fantastic albums, Utopia and Huncholini the 1st.
*Sorry the Spotify players wouldn’t link in, but the URLs below should work!
M Huncho’s Socials
https://open.spotify.com/artist/491U1PrV1EoQuhM0aUCn9r
Dutchavelli’s Socials