Dide - Who Is The Premier League's Secret Rapper? - video Dailymotion

FourFourTwo

Bukayo Saka? Eddie Nketiah? Ashley Young?!?! Speculation about which Premier League star is living a double life as one of the UK's most exciting emerging new artists is rife, but have internet sleuths correctly identified the player by his tattoos?

Transcript

00:00 It's probably the greatest bit of marketing in the recent history of British music.

00:08 A new rapper bursts onto the scene, rumours fly around that he's actually a Premier League

00:12 footballer, his lyrics are loaded with clues about his identity, but crucially, he constantly

00:17 conceals his face with a mask and never reveals his name.

00:20 Ladies and gentlemen, this is D-Day.

00:24 Two months ago, a track entitled "Intro Freestyle" was the first video uploaded to a newly created

00:29 YouTube channel.

00:30 As well as including a number of veiled and not-so-veiled references to his life as a

00:34 footballer within the lyrics, an accompanying website also went live where he directly claimed

00:38 to be playing in the Premier League.

00:40 The football pitch and the actual football branding being slightly more on the nose.

00:44 Since then, D-Day has released a full single and music video "Thrill", another freestyle

00:49 "Smoke and Havoc", and the internet has frantically played the masked singer trying to pin the

00:53 clues to several footballers.

00:55 So who are the most likely candidates to be a Premier League footballer secretly living

00:59 a double life as an emerging rapper?

01:02 The name at the front of the queue is currently Eddie Nketiah.

01:05 Despite his name almost being an exact anagram of D-Day, you just sort of take the other

01:10 D and you move it around and it kind of works, there are also several other components that

01:14 seem to line up perfectly.

01:16 There's a reference to his age being 23, which checks out, a claim that he recently

01:20 signed a new contract to put him into the seven-figure bracket, which Nketiah did for

01:24 Arsenal last year, and some coded lyrics about having the option to go down a different path

01:28 or sit on the bench and, well, yep, there he is.

01:32 Most compelling of all though is the prominent imagery of South London in the background

01:35 of his video.

01:36 Nketiah is, very proudly, from the Lewisham Borough of South London, and the Bermondsey

01:40 area some 15 minutes down the road features in the majority of the "Thrill" video.

01:45 Finally, even aside from just the strong South London accent, people just think his voice

01:49 sounds similar, which would, admittedly, be a pretty big giveaway.

01:53 However, his isn't the only name in the frame, and it isn't even the only one from

01:57 the current Arsenal squad.

01:58 Third favourite with the bookies right now, and yes, you can actually bet on this, is

02:03 Pikaio Saka.

02:05 Primarily because, again, of the perceived similarities between his voice and that of

02:09 D-Day, Saka also ticks a lot of the same boxes laid out in the clues as Eddie and Nketiah.

02:13 However, he's still only 21 and not 23, signed his big contract a number of years

02:18 ago, hasn't really had to go through a prolonged period of sitting on the bench, and grew up

02:22 in Ealing in West London as opposed to Lewisham in the South.

02:26 Another thing working against him is just the unshakeable feeling amongst Arsenal fans

02:30 especially that Pikaio Saka just doesn't seem like the type of person to have a secret

02:35 rap career.

02:36 Seemingly shy, mild-mannered and fully focused on his football, the idea that he also has

02:40 a secret persona that spits absolute bars on a number of controversial topics in his

02:44 downtime just feels too far-fetched for many.

02:48 More realistic to some, though, is his former teammate Alex Iwobi.

02:52 Originally being born in Lagos, Nigeria, Woebs was brought up in London and has the accent

02:56 to match.

02:57 He would also definitely have a reason to want to mask his identity, being as a teammate

03:01 of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, he will have seen first-hand the reactions some Everton fans

03:06 and others had to his modelling career.

03:08 You can't get him at 4-1, making him the second favourite here, but almost none of

03:11 the clues dotted around his music really seem to fit.

03:15 But what's gotten him so low in the odds is that unlike Nketiah, Saka or anyone else

03:19 you'd care to mention, Iwobi is, in his spare time, already an actual rapper.

03:24 And not just that he does a bit of rapping on the team bus to lift the mood type, he

03:28 has a full, state-of-the-art music studio in the basement of his house and has been

03:32 quietly making music for the last six years.

03:35 Not to get too tinfoil hat about this, but if Iwobi did want to embark on a side gig

03:39 as the Premier League's secret rapper, the fact he is already the Premier League's

03:43 not-secret rapper would mean he would need to litter his music with red herrings rather

03:47 than actual clues.

03:49 And yes, I am perfectly aware that I'm thinking way too hard about this.

03:52 Elsewhere, the bookies will give you decent money on players like Ashley Young, arguably

03:56 way too old, Jacob Ramsey, sounds nothing like him, and Ivan Toney, not exactly a world

04:01 leader in the field of keeping off-the-field interests entirely secret.

04:05 But recently a new and quite captivating theory has taken a hold, with fans believing they

04:09 have matched up a tattoo peeking out of D-Day's sleeve to that of a current footballer.

04:14 Former Liverpool player and current Cardiff City star, Shea Ojo.

04:19 While all the rest of the clues are very hit and miss, he's slightly older than 23 but

04:22 did grow up in London, the discovery of this diamond tattoo on his wrist does appear to

04:27 be the first concrete bit of evidence to date.

04:29 However, the imagery accompanying these theories isn't exactly crystal clear, so take that

04:33 one with as big a pinch of salt as you like.

04:35 Ojo's a fascinating candidate though, given that the marketing and interest surrounding

04:39 D-Day is that he is a current Premier League player.

04:42 D-Day's death currently being in the championship means that this claim and a number of the

04:46 other clues dotted around the lyrics would all be basically made up for media attention,

04:50 which undeniably is working.

04:52 So who is D-Day?

04:53 Well, he's a young man, almost certainly from London and with ties to its southern

04:57 boroughs, who raps about love, life and being a Premier League footballer.

05:01 But it's worth keeping in mind though that Snoop Dogg often raps about being an actual

05:05 dog, which is of course not the reality.

05:08 Given the success he's enjoyed in such a short space of time though, fuelled as much

05:11 by his music as the speculation around it, it's debatable whether it's ever going

05:15 to be beneficial for D-Day to unmask.

05:17 The curiosity has gotten everyone's attention and, in music as much as in football, giving

05:22 yourself the correct platform to play on is half the battle anyway.

05:25 So watch this space, I guess.

Dide - Who Is The Premier League's Secret Rapper?

Category

Transcript

Recommended