East London boy, Dylan Mills, aka Dizzee Rascal, might be about to win the Mercury Music Prize with his debut LP Boy In Da Corner. He's certainly a serious contender.
This single, taken from the album, is a weird beauty, and strangely enticing with it's churning darkness. With its deep drums, flashes of electric guitar, nasal rantings reminiscent of Cypress Hill, and its funky chorus, it stands head and shoulders above its contemporaries in terms of originality. Dizzee speaks of the desperation and loss inherent to East London estate life rather than glorifying the violence and misogyny inherent to most other MC moanings, and he does it with an unusual panache.
The B-side, Stop Dat, is even more gorgeous. This is refreshing and inventive music. East London has already won one Mercury with Talvin Singh's OK. Hopefully it'll come home again this year.
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