Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner

I dunno, I sorta like the idea that Chomsky is a prog freak! If it wasn't him it was a good choice of pseudonym.

The "hey" as heard on More Fire's LP is the trademark of Platinum 45 who produced that track, the More Fire LP and is a mate of Dizzee's.

He has, incidentally, a full Roll Deep Eskimo vocal special which is incredible.

How do we know Chomsky is a music geek again?

"Over a bittersweet melody that sounds like a blend of an Oriental music box and a Lali Puna lullaby"

"as i have commented before on another thread - brand new day IS morr music or aphex from about 96. dont know how dizzee arrived at these off kilter melodies and skrucnhy rhythms, but it totally sounds like he just riding some instrumental lali puni track.
presumably he hasnt been buying morr compilations though."
-- ambrose (ambrosewhit...), June 9th, 2003.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf700/f747/f74715kusx4.jpg

vs.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/images/d/dizzee-rascal/boy-in-da-corner.gif

http://www.netzbrummer.de/images/cover/biz_markie.jpg

Markie's influence reaches farther than one may think! The intro track on that Soul Position EP was a straight jack on the Biz's take on "Alone Again."

I like scott's review, Pfork's rookie of the year.

I'm confused. I keep listening to it though...so that's something.

What is not absurd is the notion of Dizzee Rascal as a completely fresh voice, a five star artist who takes a position that has not already been mined to death (or perhaps a genre not yet over-critiqued, as Dizzee Rascal is not exactly a precedent setter, or is he?) ... I mean, one thing everyone must admit is that "I Luv U" sounds completely different to how you thought it would sound when you first read about it.

Personally, I'm really conflicted. I love recent UKG, but what exactly is it that exhalts Dizzee Rascal before your Nasty Crews, your {other members of} Roll Deep Crews? Is it that Dizzee won the race for a full-length, well-distributed album (pretty necessary for widespread critical acceptance)? No ... the album seems hurried, so he/XL/somebody was pretty sure he was pretty close to the finish line anyway. So is it the whole youth/honesty/freshness chestnut?

... still thinking ... mainly about the now-more-obvious-than-ever but more-confusingly-unsortable-than-ever relationship between the critical public and the general public ...

This album is fucking bananas. Dancehall 2-step crunk, beats that'd give Flat Eric whiplash, funny/morbid/hardass/vulnerable, murder murder murder. Cannot form coherent sentences. Outkast will have to bring Jesus, Mayfield and "Love Machine" Art Barr back from the grave to even come close. NGH. NGAAAH. BEAT COMA

The Kano vs Dizzee comparison is also made easy and fun b/c you can use "I Luv U" and "Boys Luv Girls".

Nasty Crew is certainly shaping up to be the second group in the requisite two-groups-that-define-the-genre pairing. I think they've got slightly better quality control MC-wise than Roll Deep too, although Roll Deep will have a pretty fucking big trump card if they employ Harry Toddler full-time.

Now, to get off the fence, I agree with Fields of Salmon. However I like the less busy tracks a lot, they give the highly syllabic vocals room some room breathe. On some other tracks I was just listening to an overly fidgety, fussily cubased mixed, and it was mildly frustrating. Room to breath!

Radical? No way. As I had expected, it's heavily influenced by modern lo-fi dancehall but with some jungle influence.

Stop trying to get so excited people. It's good, not brilliant, you want to kill this guy's talent with too early praise?

1. his multi-faceted persona
2. his voice
3. his auteur status. He's the only one who's a brilliant rapper and a brilliant producer
4. I Luv U

Bearing in mind it takes me a good two hours to download one track (terrible connection) which album tracks should I go for next?

I've got "We Ain't Having It" but in fact that doesn't seem to be on the album at all - anyone know where it's from?