David Lawrence Brewster Jr. (born June 3, 1988), better known by his stage name Dave East, is an American rapper and actor from Harlem, NY. East started rapping in 2010 and sold illegal street drugs throughout his hometown of Harlem just to support himself and his own music, all the while releasing over six mixtapes. He gained attention in 2014 from his eighth mixtape, Black Rose. Its release garnered the attention of Nas, who later signed East to his record label, Mass Appeal Records, and later in conjunction with Def Jam Recordings.

In 2016, East was chosen as part of the XXL magazine's 2016 Freshman Class. His tenth mixtape, Kairi Chanel, was released in the same year and peaked at number 38 on the US Billboard 200. His debut Extended Play, Paranoia: A True Story, was released in 2017 with features from Nas, Wiz Khalifa, Chris Brown amongst others and peaked at number 9 on the US Billboard 200.

East began his acting career in 2017, where he had a role as himself in Being Mary Jane and The Breaks. He also had a supporting role in the Netflix film Beats (2019) as Mister Ford. His breakthrough acting role came in the Hulu series Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019) where he portrays Method Man. His debut studio album Survival was released on November 8, 2019, and peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard 200.