Camden New Journal - Music: Dizzee Rascal

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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 7 June 2007

The Dizzee heights of hip-hop

GIG PREVIEW: DIZZEE RASCAL
Koko
by Richard Osley

WHEN it comes to fitted-cap favourite Dizzee Rascal, there are quite a few people who can say: “I went to school with him.”
He went to four different secondaries in east London and was expelled from them all. Every other week he must have been meeting new classmates before sticking their heads down the toilet and leaving “kick me” stickers on their back. (Is that what bullies do these days – or is that just 1980s Grange Hill?)
Now he’s famous, he must be tired of the Facebook requests that say “Oi Diz, I remember you from school, you were the one who flicked elastic bands across the room, let’s meet up”. Not likely.
Dylan Mills, to give him his proper name, has put his naughty school days behind him. He didn’t need music lessons to scream and shout, almost stumbling across the invention of “grime” and winning the Mercury Prize for his first album, Boy In Da Corner, three years ago.
He didn’t really need lessons in Maths and English – the title of his third album – either.
Instead, DR has knuckled down to creating an innovative cross between two-step garage and London beat hip-hop, the kind favoured by the likes of Estelle and Shystie but with a jagged edge.
“Everything I do,” Dizzee said recently, “is for the music. I want to master it like Bruce Lee mastered martial arts.” He is clearly a man on a mission.
Sometimes his sound is so shrill it feels like your eardrums will burst but his sharp observations and individuality cannot be ignored for long. Everyone should see him perform once.

* Dizzie Rascal plays Koko on Thursday June 14. (Mornington Crescent Tube.) £15

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