Dizzee Rascal - Boy in da Corner (Matador, 2004)

Dizzee Rascal
Boy in da Corner
Matador
2004

Rating: 9 mischievous children out of 10

That sound you hear is the collective “Holy Shit!” that comes out of people’s mouths the first time they hear the sounds of the 18 year old British superstar Dizzee Rascal. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that this is the most original and imaginative hip-hop album to come out in quite some time, but there is something extremely limiting by just calling this a hip-hop record after you’ve heard the glorious sounds etched into it's wax. The music is mostly a combination of extremely hard, erratic beats and Rascal’s intense lyricism, which is nearly overpowered by one of the thickest English Cockney accents I’ve ever heard on record or film; there are times when you think you’re listening to a foreign language. Additionally, there are songs that bring in heavy guitar riffs, operatic chorus singing, and odd techno-style bleeps and bloops that really round out the recording. I’ve been pretty bored with hip-hop for quite a while now - with the exceptions of El-P, Meanest Man Contest, Outkast and Dalek, the only groups out there willing to do something different than tow the line and push the boundries of hip-hop and music in general – but hopefully this release will help swing some folks in the direction that different can be better, and being sheep no matter what the musical genre is serves no purpose but to put people asleep. I know that’s what the record companies want, but we as consumers need to hope and want and fight for more.