“I Pray You Get to Hear My Craft”: Incarceration, Trauma, and Therapeutic Autofiction in Dave’s Psychodrama

This article embarks upon an experimental, interdisciplinary engagement with Black-British rapper David Omoregie’s 2019 album Psychodrama. I use the conceptual framework of autofiction, or text that sits in the liminal space between truth and fiction, in combination with a sustained analysis of Omoregie’s album-as-narrative, to position the album as a form of autofictional rap. With a specific focus on the autofictional spectre of Omoregie’s incarcerated brother, Christopher, I sit with the album’s duality and two-ness, using autofiction as a critical lens clarifying how and why Black-British rappers stray into imaginative, fictive realms to aid discussions of trauma and Black-British identity.