New Album for Craig David, “22”
When Craig David dropped his debut album, “Born to Do It”, in August 2000, the teenaged former pirate-radio DJ was already the source of one of the biggest hits the year prior: “Re-Rewind” with UKG duo Artful Dodger. Arriving at his eighth studio album, “22”, David’s run now spans four decades.
For his first album since 2018’s The Time Is Now, the one-time poster boy for the deep-rooted diversity of UK garage adds in the details to properly lean into his legacy. Across hand-picked guests, David interpolates his favourite ’90s R&B cut—from Jon B. on album opener “Teardrops”—lands a long-awaited pairing with MNEK (“Who You Are”) and holds space for the brightest of UK R&B’s next-gen, including R ’n’ Drill pioneer Isong (“21”) and trap prince Nippa (“G Love”). ‘That’s just garage in a nutshell,’ he says. ‘It’s always been about making music outside of the box. Whenever I write, or when I make a new album, Born to Do It is the standard, the gold seal. And even if [that time] was this huge blur that took things from zero to 100, I’m always grateful because it always keeps me in check.’
Across his 22-year career, Craig has collaborated with everyone from Sting to Kano to Diplo to KSI, while also becoming one of the biggest DJs in Ibiza via his TS5 sound system. Award-wise Craig has received 14 Brit Award nominations, two Grammy nominations, four MOBO awards, three Ivor Novellos honouring his songwriting, and most recently an MBE for his services to music.
Speaking of the new single, Craig says ‘I’ve loved watching Nippa grow over the years in his own unique, organic way. His talent as a songwriter as well as an Artist is very special. It’s rare that you come across artists who you feel are paving the way for a new era of R&B and Nippa is doing just that. Such a great vibe working with him on this song as we both were able to dive into what made us get in to R&B in the first place. Simple melodies over tuff drums, while honouring the groove of some of the more classic R&B of the 00’s courtesy of Mike Brainchild, who produced it. The icing on the cake was having it mixed by the R&B legend Phil Tan who fully understood the assignment having mixed such classics as Usher’s “Confessions”, Jagged Edge’s “Let’s Get Married” & Aaliyah‘s “One In A Million”.’
Since he first emerged at the end of 1999 with instant UK garage classic “Re-Rewind”, Craig has scored 25 UK top 40 singles (16 of them top 10), nine UK top 40 albums (five of them top 10) and amassed over 5 billion streams worldwide. In fact, over 1.5 billion of those came via his most recent releases, 2016’s chart-topping comeback album, “Following My Intuition”, and 2018’s career consolidating “The Time Is Now”.
As one of the UK’s most loved artists, Craig has continually soundtracked the UK charts all whilst crossing multiple genres, his now iconic first record “Born To Do It” made a huge impact on UK culture and brought garage from the underground and to the forefront of the mainstream.
In addition to this, Craig has one of Ibiza’s most successful and long standing residencies playing Ibiza Rocks for 5 seasons. 2022 is no exception, as well as just finishing his “Hold That Thought” UK tour.
Craig continues to remain at the helm of his own unique, authentically British sound. A sound that made waves across the globe, making him the voice of one of the most pivotal eras in UK music, and in turn, making him one of the most successful artists in UK chart history.
