Dizzee Rascal Tongue N Cheek (Dirtee Stank)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
As Grime’s first bona fine breakout star and Bow’s most famous exponent since The Great Bell, East Londoner Dylan ‘Dizzee Rascal’ Mills unites an atypically large number of musical tribes. So it follows that his fourth studio album is a predictably schizophrenic affair.
It’s immediately evidenced in his choice of associates- this record sees him teaming up with both Calvin Harris, purveyor of undemanding mainstream electro-pop that here provides the foundations for ‘Dance Wiv Me’ and ‘Holiday’, as well as edgier names such as Drum and Bass producer Shy FX. Opener ‘Bonkers’ - an Armand Van Helden collaboration, erstwhile number one UK hit single and inescapable soundtrack to summer 2009 - perfectly encapsulates Dizzee’s uncommonly broad appeal . A monster bassline, delirious sirens and a cheerfully anarchic chorus are counterbalanced with a set of existentialist lyrics recounting the kind of distressed emotional torment – “I wake up just to go back to sleep”- that owe more to post-punk’s solemn introspection than to the bling and bravado more typically associated with this genre.
Granted, much of what follows goes a substantial way in redressing this incongruity. The CD inlay contains a series of shots of Dizzee gurning and larking around like a teenager after receiving their first camera as a Christmas present; a fitting visual representation of much of ‘Tongue N’ Cheek.’ ‘Freaky Freaky’ is propelled by some tiresome sexual crowing that verges on cartoonish self-parody, whilst the unambiguously titled ‘Money, Money’ contains a chorus revealing Dizzee to be a staunchly heterosexual advocate of globalised market capitalism – “Money! Money! Money! Girls Girls! Cash! Cash!” - that inadvertently recalls that Simpsons episode where the pupils of Springfield Elementary treat visiting dignitaries to the gleefully inane number "The Children Are Our Future" (“Children, Children! Future, Future! The future is a ...Comin'!”)
A shame, as the convincing menace of ‘Road Rage’ and the metropolitan frustrations detailed in ‘Can’t Take No More’ show that when not submerged beneath cliché he’s a forceful, gripping lyricist and MC.
Artists in this article: Dizzee Rascal
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