story by Nicholas Clar
photo by Dean Chalkley
Let's face it. You routinely drive home on the expressway every weekday
afternoon, strenuously navigating through traffic. Hip-hop used to
be an escape from the accumulating daily grind. But now it merely
contributes to the insanity with its mysteriously successful, formulaic
tracks played ad nauseam on the radio.
There are, admittedly, a few rays of light which pierce through the
monotony amidst the dense fog of shit engulfing today's hip-hop. Ironically,
one of these sources of illumination penetrating the bubblegum, hip-pop
mundanity exists in the land known for its fog - as well as its afternoon
tea, strange comedies, distinct beers, punk rock and the Beatles:
the U.K. Well, maybe it shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that the
mold-shattering rapper, Dylan Mills, better known as Dizzee Rascal,
hails from the United States' bizarro world older brother.
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DIZZEE'S INNER VIEW
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"I never made music with the world
in mind."
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Played out like a made-for-TV movie, Dizzee's life has emulated the
phrase "from rags to riches". He grew up in East London
with his mom and was expelled from three schools only to be immersed
in even more trouble along the way, thus justifying the latter part
of his rap moniker, Rascal. Ultimately he found solace in music, a
good thing for both Dizzee and for audiences around the world. His
first release in 2003, Boy in Da Corner, won him critical acclaim
as well as a solidified fan base. The following year, wasting no time
gallivanting, Dizzee was back on the grind releasing Showtime, proving
that his success and talents were no fluke.
"All I'm looking to do is get better with my music," Dizzee
explains to Chicago Innerview. "Anything I can do to keep making
it better." The multi-talented Dizzee utilized both trades as
a rapper and producer with his shortly lived group, Roll Deep Crew,
before each member diverged on separate career paths and Dizzee went
solo.
Dizzee attributes his influences to the U.K.'s garage, grime and
2-step scenes that are beginning to garner a more mainstream audience.
These U.K. manifestations are mutations of the drum and bass and jungle
genres. Dizzee also likens his music to a raw, crunk sound and sees
himself, rightfully so, as the spark to the newfound interest in garage
music.
While observing that by simply staying inside the box has spelled
success for numerous commercial rappers in the United States, U.K.
rappers, pre-Dizzee, were notorious for not deviating from the norm
and mimicking many U.S. emcees' styles. Dizzee, however, melded his
grimy, unique sound to the hard, condensed, underground garage beats
and molded the resulting popular crossover music. "Molded in
a sense where I was on the forefront," Dizzee claims. "I
never made music with the world in mind."
With interviews in The Source magazine, XXL and Blender, among others,
as well as music award accolades, performances across the globe (notably
at South By Southwest last year), tracks for an upcoming soundtrack
to a British gangster movie and collaborating with The Neptunes, the
hard working Dizzee is now starting a new chapter in his musical career
by headlining a North American tour aptly titled, "Showtime."
Touted as offering an explosive live show with the ability to improvise
his unrehearsed, live performances like no other, Dizzee simply describes
his sets as "raw."
Thus far, this U.K. rapper has provided audiences with enough room
to cut into the fast lane, circumventing suckers left in the stop-and-go
monotony of modern day hip-hop. He has offered a breath of fresh air
in the indistinct fog and an outlook into reality as he sees it -
a reality that doesn't involve glitz and glamour, one that serves
as the template for his music. And Dizzee Rascal keeps it just as
dirty and grimy as his life.
Dizzee Rascal :: Double Door :: April 30.
Listen
to an mp3 of Dizzee Rascal's "Stand Up Tall,"
courtesy of Better Propaganda.