Dizzee Rascal
Tongue N’ Cheek
(Liberator)
He’s a cheeky bleeder, in’ he?
He’s his generation’s Chas N’ Dave (“gertcha”), a Tommy Trindle for the Chavs,
Carry On Up The Crunk for 2009, engaging us in a chirpy Cockney knees up while pretending to act a little bit naughty like those lads in
Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.
“Beep Beep! Coming through! Move over! Yeah you!” he warns on ‘Road Rage’, an amoral distillation of anger that in the hands of an Eminem would sound outright chilling. Here, he sounds more like Madness coming over all Wiggles on ‘Driving In My Car’.
“People say I’m bonkers,” he boasts over and over on the jaunty, infectious opening track. Yeah, like Mr Blobby.
The sexual shenanigans of ‘Freaky Friday’ could be the bragging bricklayer from Ian Dury’s ‘Billericay Dickie’ (c.f.
“I had a love affair with Nina/In the back of my Cortina/A seasoned-up hyena/Could not have been more obscener”), only even more studiously Mockney.
“Chana,” the Rascal leers.
“She didn’t give me no drama. After the show she was on my banana.” Like Dury, the Rascal is deceptively fluent and expert in his flow: rapid-fire and alliterative, loose and explosive, never tripping up, always one step ahead. It doesn’t pay to admit quite how good you are, you need to play your cards close. It’s a part of the game, something that the Rascal admits on the close-to-biographical, demystifying, squelching aqua synth-fest ‘Leisure’:
“It’s only entertainment/And I do it at my leisure.” Later, for good measure, he taunts his detractors,
“I couldn’t give a toss, man/Because I’m my own boss, man.”
The album’s stand-out is ‘Can’t Tek No More’ – with its excellent Aswad sample, from ‘Warrior Charge’. It’s as close as the Rascal comes to actual rage: he rails impotently against London’s congestion charge in a near-hysterical voice, over old school big beat and brass borrowed from The Specials’ debut.
“Do something ‘bout it/This is important,” he commands. Well, OK. The track that follows is pure Dr Dre territory – or perhaps Ice Cube’s ‘It Was A Good Day’ – nostalgic, hazy, looking back on the days when all the Rascal had to worry about was someone stealing his Playstation.
It’s odd, how familiar this music sounds now.
When Dizzee first smashed into our consciousness in 2003, with
Boy In Da Corner, his rapid-fire artillery beats sounded as underground as they come. Now, he’s as popular as pop music gets – witness the success of the slinky ‘Dance Wiv Me’ (first UK single to sell 100,000 since Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’) and the Prince William-championed ‘Bonkers’. Although you’d think that the seal of approval from the Royals would be the kiss of death for any self-respecting rapper, the Rascal seems to have enough suss to stay on top. Even if it does mean turning himself into the new
Chas Smash.
Everett True
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Dizzee Rascal - 'Holiday'