Dizzee Rascal
plays Rogers Picnic with City & Colour, Cat Power, Tokyo Police Club, Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, more. Sunday, July 20. Historic Fort York, 100 Garrison. $49.50 from Ticketmaster, Rotate This, Soundscapes, Play De Record. Gates open 1pm.
If you asked one of us lowly entertainment press prognosticators if we thought Dizzee Rascal was going to become a star in 2003, you’d have got affirmative nods. In early 2008, you’d get grimaces. But as of this writing, the London MC is sitting on top of the UK singles chart for the second week in a row with “Dance Wiv Me,” a chunky house track produced by Calvin Harris that sounds nothing like the grimy beats and paranoid street talk he started with on his Mercury prize–winning debut, Boy in Da Corner, or even much like his more diverse but still rugged 2007 album, Maths + English, which included “Flex,” his most dancefloor-friendly single to date.
And yet now, there it is, plain as the dress practically falling off the model in the generic video for “Dance Wiv Me.” He’s a pop star. Isn’t this what we always wanted?
“Doing this last song was a big risk,” the 23-year-old explains over the phone, reeling from nights of chart-inspired partying. “And it’s true that, like, a lot of people don’t like it. A lot of people don’t like the direction I’ve gone in, even from ‘Flex.’ I guess they like a different type of thing, but music to me is about feeling.
“I don’t make false music. If I tried to make ‘I Luv U’ again it wouldn’t be real, anyway. It would just sound shit. It’s like watching a movie star make the same film over and over and over again.”
It didn’t sound like shit back then. Along with a handful of early grime singles, “I Luv U” was one of the first wave of songs that announced that the bastard children of drum ’n’ bass and 2-step UK garage were laying claim to their own dark and dirty urban sound, one focused around MCing and diamond-hard electro-driven beats. With its hoovering synth slaps and clattering percussion, “I Luv U” was the best of the crop — but the crop never got harvested by the mainstream, leaving a lot of talented MCs floundering.
Even though grime’s not dead, many a potential superstar has gone down with the ship of their chosen genre. Instead, Dizzee sounds more and more like the savvy mogul he wants to become, claiming that “Dance Wiv Me” is the first single released independently to go No. 1 in the UK in 14 years and talking about his plans for his fledgling Dirtee Stank imprint, whose signings include gritty duo Newham Generals.
“In five years I see myself [running] the premier urban label for the UK and Europe. Like the real Def Jam or the real fuckin’ No Limit of the UK, actually doing it properly. This track going No. 1 helps, because it’s the first release on the label, and obviously we’ve done big things.”
This is also what every wannabe mogul living in his parents’ basement says, but they rarely figure out how to compromise without giving in entirely. Dizzee’s even pragmatic about his sound, noting that he’s not bothered that his first No. 1 didn’t see him rapping over his own production.
“I make beats. I always have, so just naturally I rap over my own beats as well, but if I did do an album where I didn’t produce no beats, I don’t think it’d be too much problem as long as everything was big. If it was better than what I could do, then I don’t mind.”
And even as a long-time grime fan, neither do I. “Dance Wiv Me” isn’t a desperate grab at stardom. It’s the maturation of an artist who knows you don’t have to be angry all the time, not least when your music gets played in clubs.
“House is fucking massive in England. At the party last night it was the last thing to get played and it was actually what got the party kicking off the most. The girls love it. It’s not posing, like a lot of hip-hop. Or posturing. There’s a lot of that in hip-hop. But with the funky house it’s strictly about getting down, innit?” Ain’t nothing wrong with that.