Shazam’s Music Of The Decade: Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal’s self produced debut ‘Boy In Da Corner’ crystallised all that was urgent, raw and relevant about British urban music in 2003. Springing from East London’s grime scene – which itself was a brand new musical mixture of hip-hop, 2 step garage and drum & bass influences – Dizzee managed to combine the starkly raw electronic sounds of grime with a viscously witty, often aggressive but always heartfelt delivery. Tracks such as ‘I Luv U’ and ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ painted a vividly dark picture of urban life but were delivered with shades of social critique and old school rap braggadocio that gave his album a wider appeal.
Unlike albums from his contemporaries from the grime scene, ‘Boy In Da Corner’ managed to achieve both critical and commercial success without diluting the jarring electronic sound of the genre at all. The album remains a critical high water mark of Dizzee’s career despite the fact that the rapper has now gone on to achieve more wide spread acclaim with pop influenced tracks such as, ‘Dance With Me’ and ‘Bonkers’. Winning the Mercury Prize in 2003, the album remains one of the best examples of UK hip hop ever produced.
