Rethinking rap with Deca OTA.
“I don’t compromise on the message at all,” Deca OTA told Firebird.
photo courtesy of Deca OTA.
Deca OTA is an up-and-coming 21-year-old rapper from London who blends the best elements of modern jazz rap with faith-based storytelling. You can hear his unique ability to combine sonic innovation with strong moral messaging in his recent singles such as “Through the Fire” and “Presence.”
I had the opportunity to talk with Deca about his inspirations, collaborations, spirituality, and goals.
Arjun Bhakoo: I want to start with your background. I’m curious about your early years in London—where you grew up and how that kind of set you on your journey.
Deca OTA: I grew up in North West London in a place called Grahame Park. It’s a bit of a deprived area, you know, council estates and all that type of stuff. I lived there for like 10 years. I moved to a place called Newham in East London in 2011, and I lived there until around 2020. My parents are separated, so I would live in my mum’s house and my dad’s house, back and forth. I moved back with my mum in 2020, but since then I’ve moved out to Essex, and I’ve lived there since.
I started doing music in 2021, but I recorded my first song in 2018 after school—I used to go to a studio after school. And then in 2021, me and my guy Rosen Films, who shoots all my videos, we were like “We might as well start trying to take music seriously.” It wasn’t until 2024 that the music actually started to take off in any way, because that was the year when I started promoting through TikTok; I released a song called “Free Imprint” that got a lot of attention on the app.
AB: I’m curious if there’s anything in particular that drove you or inspired you to start making music.
Deca: Well, my brother did music first, and then I started getting inspired to make music too. He dropped off music, but I was like “Well, let me try.” I didn’t have any musical family or musical influence in my family, I just did it one time because I saw my brother doing it, and it just went on from there.
AB: I think anyone who listens to your more recent singles will say you have a really unique sound—super laid back, a lot of jazz inspiration, chill flow. I'm curious how you developed that sound.
Deca: Yeah, so the jazz sound and all of that, I would say that was developed from my musical inspirations when it came down to listening to a lot of MF DOOM, a lot of boom bap, a lot of Masta Ace. There’s a lot of old school rappers that I would listen to; I would listen to Mobb Deep, you know, Big L too. So, all of these people, that’s where a lot of the inspiration came from—like trying to learn the jazz instrumentalization with the contemporary rap elements.
AB: Do you have producers that you work with frequently who are making your beats?
Deca: Yeah, so his name is GXMZ, or Harry is his real name. GXMZ is the one who works with me on the beats; we co-produce the beats together. We worked together on “Through the Fire,” “Redemption,” and a lot of unreleased ones. The majority of my faith-based discography is made by me and GXMZ. And he works with other artists in my collective, like Afu, too.
AB: I’m also curious how you met Gianni’s Humble, who’s a young New York producer you collaborated with on your single “Visage.”
Deca: He found me through the “Through the Fire” song, so we tapped in and started working on songs. That’s how we made music. And we have a lot of other projects that we’ve worked on together that aren’t released yet. So, yeah, just naturally through that process.
AB: You mentioned your collective earlier, which is called Free Imprint. I’m curious how you guys all met and what your goal with the collective is.
Deca: So, Free Imprint was started in 2023 by me and my friend Nairao, who’s also an artist. I’ve known him since I was like 11 years old. And my videographer Rosen, also, we all went to the same school, so we’ve all known each other since we were 10 or 11. So they were there to witness the music journey, and they tried to start doing music themselves. Obviously, when you do music, it’s not easy to take off, so we were all just trying.
And Rosen, he’s a videographer because he didn’t really like making music—he wanted to do something different—so he started shooting videos. And over time he saw a lot of success in it because now he shoots a show called Plugged In with Fumez the Engineer, which is a big freestyle platform in the UK. He’s the main creative director and videographer for that whole platform. So even before my music started to take off, Rosen had already seen quite a bit of success in his own field, in his own right. And it was helpful having that connection to him—in the sense of bringing individuals, the creative direction, and the industry experience that he had. When we went to do Free Imprint, for example, we didn’t have to go seek out a third party to shoot our videos. Everything was being done in-house, so our productivity was way higher because we were able to get the content out faster.
With Free Imprint, we’re able to deliver on ideas more efficiently because we’re all friends, so if we have a bit of constructive criticism to give or any type of input to give, there’s no bad blood around it. Everything is done with quite a bit of synergy.
Free Imprint was meant to be—it is—a creative collective that specializes in all creative media. Like, we’re not only related to music. We built our Discord server in a way where anybody who has a creative skill—whether it be graphic design, maybe you know how to use After Effects, maybe you know how to do social media management—any type of skill you have, that’s what Free Imprint is meant to bring together. We’re trying to bring together all people from different media and skills to make, basically, a collective that can operate like a multimedia company. That’s the vision for Free Imprint—the long-term vision.
AB: Are there any other communities that are important to you?
Deca: I would say the Christian community especially; the Chrisitan community has taken me in with open arms. They were instantly supportive of my music, and so were a lot of the biggest artists in the Christian scene—Y Shadey, Reblah, Still Shadey, DC3, just to name a few people. A lot of people in the scene making music embraced us in a way that was surprising to us.
In the previous scene that we were in, we felt more in competition. Other people in the scene were our competition instead of our peers. You know what I’m saying? When you’re in the secular scene, it’s more like a popularity contest—it’s about who has the most views, who has whatever, whatever. So when we were embraced by the Chrisitian community, it was quite eye-opening, like going into a different realm.
AB: When did you have your spiritual awakening, and would you say there was anything in particular which sparked your transformation?
Deca: Yeah, so it was in October 2023 that I was baptized—born again. After being baptized I was in a sermon with my pastor, and that was when I experienced the concept of being born again; and not only being born again, but going through physical and spiritual flames. Basically, the sermon was about how when you’re born again, a lot of people will think that life is going to be smooth sailing and simple, but in reality it’s the opposite; because when you’re born again, the enemy increases in their attempts to bring you back to your old ways. So that’s why it’s like you’re going through fire because, basically, you’re being renewed and you’re coming out as a new creation. That’s what gave me the inspiration to write “Through the Fire.” I had already written the lyrics a while back, but I just never actually decided to go through with making it a full-on song and releasing it. I would say in April I probably finished writing the whole song, and then in May I released it.
At the time, there was nothing that was prompting me to start making gospel music. I was just coming off of my most commercially successful song, “Free Imprint,” and I was getting a lot of co-signs, a lot of label attention, a lot of industry attention. So it was a big 180-curveball to switch to gospel; people didn’t understand that I just did it because that’s what I felt was the right decision to make.
photo courtesy of Deca OTA.
AB: What would you say to listeners who maybe aren’t religious or spiritual—maybe they don’t typically listen to religious music or they’re not really listening to your music for its religious message.
Deca: I would say that the music that I’m making now, I feel like it transcends more than just making music for one demographic of people. I would say that the messages and the themes that I’m exploring—this is the truest story to me, and I feel like artistry is about conveying the story that is most true to your life. It’s not just about me being a part of the genre of gospel music, that’s never what it’s ever been about. This music is more than just, you know, contribution to the genre of gospel rap. It’s literally my truest creative expression of my day-to-day life and my actual life experience. And it’s an instrumental factor that I use scripture and I use my faith to help me navigate things in my life.
AB: Do you feel like there’s a stigma around faith-based music?
Deca: Yeah, I think there’s a stigma. The stigma is that the music is corny, that it’s too direct, and in some instances, it attempts to be like the world of secular music and it isn’t creative in that sense. I feel like my approach to making faith-based music is different to a lot because I don’t make the music with the intention of, like—I’m not going to go and make a remix of a very popular secular song and just rap about God instead. I feel that’s kind of cheap and it’s a bit of a mockery of the art form.
I’m still an artist at the end of the day. And I feel like the disciplines that I had learned—that I had adopted from my time making secular music—I’ve repurposed them to make faith-based music. So, hence why I feel like people find my music more entertaining, because I’m not making it in a way that sounds, I guess you could say, corny, or whatever people tend to say.
I feel like that stigma is only there because a lot of people that make gospel rap, I would say, they have a lot of ambition and passion for music, but sometimes the execution is not there. Just due maybe to being inexperienced or whatever it may be—that’s just down to little things. But I have that experience, so I know how to make the songs sound entertaining and sound sonically good and still have the dense, in-depth scripture and gospel inside of the verses. I don’t compromise on the message at all. So it’s a balance of making songs that are sonically entertaining and also don’t compromise on the message.
AB: Being so young—you’re only 21 years old—with a budding music career, what are your hopes for the future?
Deca: My hope for the future, I would say, is to be able to cement myself in the game as somebody who surpassed the stigma and broke the stigma. I want to instill a new mentality about faith-based music—that it doesn't have to be put in this box of “Oh, this music is all good, it’s all okay, but it’s never going to make any long-lasting impact on a wider audience.” I feel like we're about to break that stigma and show people that music with positive messages—music with messages that uplift the Lord—can rise to the same heights as any other type of music.
They try to tell us that negativity sells and positivity doesn’t, but I have the trust in God that he can raise his children to any platform they need to be on to distribute his message. All we have to do is continue our mission—do our duty of spreading the message and continue without compromising morally or forgetting what God has called us to do. My goal is to basically push the music to a place where it can be deemed as suitable for everyone to listen to and never compromise on the message. And so that’s what I’ve been doing.
AB: I’m curious what success looks like to you.
Deca: I would say success looks like us being able to be free to do this, to support ourselves doing what we do, and, obviously, never compromising on the main goal. I feel like the second we have to compromise, conform, or change up our sound just to reach certain stages, then I feel like we’ve failed with our mission. As of recently, we haven’t compromised on anything, and we’re still continuing to grow, so it shows that you don’t actually have to succumb. Obviously, if you do give in, you’ll reach the stages—you’ll reach the heights—way, way faster, but that’s what the Devil does. The Devil gives you instant gratification. With God, it’s long and drawn out: you will reach that stage and you’ll reach further, but it’s about rewarding those who are patient. So we’re staying patient—just maintaining this path and never compromising on what we set out to do in the first place.
AB: Obviously you’ve had a great string of singles over the last year or two, but I’m curious if we can expect an EP or an album anytime soon.
Deca: Yeah, so regarding a project, that’s been in my thoughts to do for a while. I’ve just been coordinating everything. The next thing probably will be a project, but I just can’t confirm when it’ll come because it’s a process that takes a bit of time.
AB: I just wanted to offer you the last word, in case there’s anything else you’d like to say.
Deca: Yeah, I would probably say, obviously thanks for having me and giving the time to speak. But, secondly, I would just like to say that I’m very grateful for the blessings that God has put upon me. For people our age, that are young, sometimes we may think life hasn’t dealt us any good cards. But we have to remember that the Lord gives us our blessings differently than the world. The worldly blessing, they’re going to come instantly, and it’s going to be something that you think you need, but a few years down the line you realize that it’s not what you wanted. Sometimes patience is the best virtue to have, even if you’re in uni, because I’m in uni as well. It’s a long process—so just maintain your mindset, stay patient, wait for your opportunities to come, and don’t get complacent or be lazy. Just stay on your grind even if things are not materializing overnight. Know that if you have patience and you stay consistent day by day, you’re going to make gradual improvements. And then look a couple years down the line, and you’re going to see how much progress you’ve made.
photo courtesy of Deca OTA.
edited by Alex Oder.
photos courtesy of Deca OTA.