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Dizzee Rascal - Dirtee Disco

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Fraser McAlpine | 10:07 UK time, Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Dizzee Rascal

Man I love Dizzee Rascal. I mean I REALLY love Dizzee Rascal. The dude's a dude, dude! You'd have to be the killjoy of all time - or, yes, someone with a legitimate grudge - to feel any differently, surely? He's a talented, articulate pop star with something to say and the means to deliver it, so that's all great for starters. But he's also incredibly good at winding up hipsters. And as we all know, winding up hipsters is, if not our sole reason to be allowed to draw air into our lungs, probably the most important thing we will ever do.

NOTE: This does not apply to anyone who works in the fields of medicine, education, governance, diplomatic relations, finance, care, the law, public transport, journalism, [something important I've forgotten]...or the emergency services, armed forces, service industries and the cafe at the Natural History Museum in London.

*dusts off hands*

(, together with Dizzee's commentary, which says more about it than I ever could.)

(Also, HERE IS DIZZEE RASCAL PERFORMING AT BIG WEEKEND)

I mean, fancy a proper street-level UK hip hop artist with tons of credibility and a Mercury Award (the hallmark of quality in strokychin music appreciation, donchaknow) reducing his once-mighty muse to the level of silly pop songs? How vulgar! Fancy a street-level UK hip hop artist dallying with DISCO, of all things. How common!

Fancy a street-level UK hip hop artist selling out by writing songs about enjoying yourself, on a dancefloor, without even bothering to work in an explicit theme about The Ladies and what he's going to do to them, given half a chance...and there's no Calvin Harris to add irony points, just some fella from One True Voice and The X Factor. I KNOW! THE X FACTOR!! What the HELL? I just hope he can sleep at night, THAT'S ALL.

Meanwhile, everyone else is too busy cranking this bad boy up and doing that dance where you look like you're holding an invisible Slinky and making it jump from palm to upturned palm with a series of cheesy-cool shrugging movements. Hipsters HATE that.

There's a brilliant taste-through-the-looking-glass bit, where Dizzee shouts "DISCO DISCO DISCO DISCO" in direct imitation of 2 Unlimited's unabashedly rubbish/brilliant 'No Limits'. If you've not heard it, it's another maddeningly addictive dance anthem, in which a rapper called Ray (not street-level, not UK either) yelled "TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO", much to the sardonic witheration of, yes, more hipsters.

You have to admit, it's definitely up there with Lady GaGa pinching ideas off Boney M. And look what happened to her!

Five starsDownload: Out now

91Èȱ¬ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

"It's more likely to remind you of your local Flares nightclub than the hedonistic heyday of Studio 54."

"I simply HATE disco. Yes, call me a hater cause I am."

"Mr Rascal has managed to appeal to retro loving disco freaks, clubbers, grimers and mum and dad in one fell swoop."

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    5 stars? seriously?? This song isn't a patch on the huge hits that were Dance Wiv Me and Bonkers. Admittedly I'm not a fan of Dizzee anyway but those 2 songs were undeniably massive commercial hits with wide appeal. This one is clearly meant to continue that trend, but it falls completely flat. It has nothing to it, it doesn't go anywhere.

    It'll probably go to no.1 because of Dizzee's huge popularity at the moment, but there's no way it'll be a Dance Wiv Me or Bonkers-size hit. Completely forgettable.

  • Comment number 2.

    Kutox I'm completely with you on this one. The song sounds really quite cheap and lazy and I'm beginning to wonder whether Dizzee actually cares about the tunes he's been bringing out lately. The last few tunes that were released were obviously Dizzee selling out, but at least they were Dizzee selling out in style not to mention the album wasn't full of filler either but actually an enjoyable listen. This song sounds like it could be one of two things...

    A: It could be a B-side from the tongue "n" cheek writing process

    OR...

    B: It is the record company saying, " Hey Dizzee we've got this super cool awesome disco vibe backing track that sounds like it was made on a laptop, rap over this beast homie".

    I would like to think it is A so there is at least some credibility in the cash in and it is possible it wasn't written purely to go to number 1 on the back of some better pop songs but I'm starting to get worried that once one of my favourite rappers is not just selling out with the music but actually becoming a slave to the record label.

  • Comment number 3.

    NO! THIS IS AN AWFUL SONG.
    Sorry, but Dizzie has definitely sold out his original kind of music. I mean, this doesn't really come CLOSE to the absolutely amazing 'Fix Up, Look Sharp' does it?

  • Comment number 4.

    I think this is terrible but I also thought Dance Wiv Me and Bonkers were too and then I loved them after a few weeks. Perhaps this is yet another grower.

    More importantly, what the Hell is on the back of Dizzee's head in the above photo - all those bumps make him look like an evil demon or something.

  • Comment number 5.

    Dizzee Rascal - Dirtee Disco

    This is another well produced , energetic , commercial tour de force from our Dylan !

    With some fantastic sharp lyrics married to a dance inducing backing track , this is gonna sell by the bucketload , and first week sales should surpass 50,000.

    Dizzee has already celebrated 3 number 1 singles , in his career , , and Dirtee Disco is severely going to challenge B.O.B for the number 1 spot on Sunday .

    This is wonderfully infectious , upbeat , material .

  • Comment number 6.

    Fraser , I think you have mysteriously added an "s" to 2 Unlimited's famous song .

    Their biggest selling single , which sold over half a million copies in the UK ,and was a number 1 in 1993 , was called No Limit .

  • Comment number 7.

    no no, no no no no, no no no no, no no THERE'S NO LIMIT!!!!

  • Comment number 8.

    When asked what he was doing next on Jonathan Ross, he replied "Whatever sells, man". Sadly, this sums up Dizzee's attitude to music at the moment.

    Sure he can write a great dance floor filler, with a good beat, average to witty lyrics and some gimicks to sell. But is his heart in it?

    I think not.

  • Comment number 9.

    Agreed.

    And as for this song, well it was always going to do well, Radio 1 have played it to death and, come on guys: it's Dizzee... back in 2007 who was he? Now he has a MAJOOSIVE fanbase.

    But still, it's not #1 material... for sure.

  • Comment number 10.

    spirit - yes, it is going to get to no.1, but that's more to do with how big Dizzee is in the pop world right now than the song itself.

  • Comment number 11.

    It could be to do with Daniel Pierce aswell... just a suggestion.

  • Comment number 12.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 13.

    Delays - Unsung

    Some lessons have been learned; The Delays understand now that the big, chorus heavy work of their second album is what makes them stand out, because they know how to do it!

    Unsung begins with a falling apart keyboard riff which, ironically, sustains the whole single. There are some good lyrics, e.g We'll make a picture not the scene, you'll be a ghost before too long.. which are great pop lyrics. The song as a whole makes little sense, but the smaller elements are catchy and on repeated listening, you begin to miss it, and that means it works.

    It isn't their best, but it is better, musically and lyrically, than MOST of the top forty. However, I do think they can do better and I think they should be pushing themselves more. More unusual lyric subjects, more unusual instrument combinations, they may be complacent. That is my opinion, my lords spirit and curtains.

  • Comment number 14.

    Once upon a time there was a man called Saul
    Who persecuted Christians until he saw
    The work was bearing fruit for the Christians
    So the man changed his opinions and his Christian name to Paul

    And he wrote important chapters in the Bible
    But the blood on his writing hand reeked to high heaven
    And Paul resolved to die.

  • Comment number 15.

    So Dizzee is NUMBER 1 Oddone .

    Please have more faith in me. :D

  • Comment number 16.

    I never said he wouldn't be #1! :O -cries
    :L

    What I said was that B.o.B. had replaced Dizzee at the top of the downloads chart. To be honest I like neither of the songs but B.o.B.'s already had a #1 with that single, so changes are good.

    Have more faith in ME... *envies the fact I don't know how to use bold or italics.... -cries more*.

    Estimate for next week's #1?

  • Comment number 17.

    1. I have no idea how I broke the house rules.

    2. SOMEONE comment on the review. I was very drunk and it was a tough job writing a sensible review.

    3. I have cross posted #14 to a momus blog. Fight the power!

  • Comment number 18.

    Spirit, how could anyone lack FAITH in you? You look like George Michael and scour the city parks with almost as much vigour.

  • Comment number 19.

    Well if I wasn't scouring the city's parks late at night , then we never would have met , would we ?

    Every cloud has a silver lining.

    :D

  • Comment number 20.

    terrible, i'm sorry dizzee but what are you doing? i say get holiday back in the charts again, best summer anthem we could get from you i think..

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