Professional Rapper
Most rap careers begin with posturing. Lil Dicky’s began with a résumé. Before anyone knew his name, Dave Burd was writing advertising copy by day and making rap videos at night—not about projecting toughness, but about the specific, articulate misery of being a twenty-something guy who is genuinely good at rapping and also mildly terrified of overdraft fees.
His debut album was literally called Professional Rapper, which featured Snoop Dogg and functioned structurally as an extended job interview. The music video has him pitching himself to Snoop as a viable hip-hop act, listing qualifications earnestly. It shouldn’t work. It absolutely works. The technical skill is real—fast, dense, melodically precise—which is what separates the comedy from novelty. When he rapped-battled Hitler or spent an entire track worrying about his bank balance, he was doing something most rappers won’t bother with: being funny on purpose while being genuinely good at the same time.
He played Huxleys Neue Welt in Berlin in November 2018, and I remember being glad someone had booked him into a real venue. A comedian-rapper filling a concert hall meant enough people had caught on. His later TV show Dave eventually made the whole project official—the alter ego formalized, the anxiety turned into proper prestige television—but those early records were the cleaner version of the thing. Less mediated. Funnier, somehow, for being less polished.