Matador Records
2004
Boy In Da Corner (Explicit)
About This Album
Often teetering on the brink of either cracking a smile or bursting into tears while delivering his boastful, wistful, and dread-filled rhymes, the hormonally charged voice of East London's Dizzee Rascal can be instantly singled out after the first introduction. Birthed by U.K. garage and seasoned through pirate radio, the terrain Dizzee carves out remains worlds apart from that of Ms. Dynamite and the Streets, two MCs who have come from a fractious-as-ever scene -- one that Dizzee's apart from as much as he's a part of -- with similar fanfare. And despite comparisons to 2Pac and 50 Cent that won't cease at any point in the foreseeable future, the parallels drawn to stateside rappers haven't often looked beneath the surface. If he were (mis)placed in a pool of U.S. MCs, there'd be few comparisons that would make full sense. The fact that Dizzee's from England is an obvious factor; his accent and own cultural slang will be an instant deal-breaker for most of those who have hunted for Makaveli bootlegs. From a production standpoint, we're talking about splayed-out beats and deflated basslines that, heard through a state-of-the-art stereo, might as well be blaring from the ravaged stock system of a 1974 Dodge Dart.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,6,9,10,12,13 and 15)

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