When Dave burst onto the scene with his Blackbox freestyle and subsequent grime/rap crossovers, it seemed like everything was aligning, but the truth is he probably would have pulled it off in any era and any circumstances.

His plan was meticulous, as he explains in this 2016 interview with Nation Of Billions, which landed just a few months after "Thiago Silva" (side note: he also reveals he and AJ had originally connected for a "One Take" freestyle before they had a change of heart and decided to go back-and-forth over "Pied Piper" instead). He knew he would have a hard time being listened to and respected as a teenager, so pure hard work and persistence were the only ways.

He started with freestyles, he explains, so that he could tap into raw emotion, hone his voice, and get immediate reactions. Perhaps even more crucial, he took an almost academic approach to rap, studying what worked and what didn't, what people reacted to, and why.

With such forensic attention to detail and, of course, the kind of innate talent you simply can't teach, Dave's rise was inevitable.