| Features
|
Last Updated:
May 6th, 2008 - 11:43:55 |
Dizzee Rascal
Rude Boy
The day I spoke with Dizzee Rascal it was already tomorrow. While I was seated at my desk at 4:15 in the afternoon, the sun high in the sky and beginning its descent, Dizzee was sitting in an Australian hotel room at 6:15 in the morning, watching the same sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. We’re both here in the present … his is just a little bit further into the future.
The first time I ever heard Dizzee Rascal felt a lot like hearing the future. Grime was a genre of hip-hop that hadn’t ever hit my ears before and Dizzee’s 2003 debut, Boy in da Corner, made the pilgrimage into my ear canals, rattling my ribcage with heart-stopping beats and running circles around my mind with rhymes spit as ferociously as any I’d ever heard, yet delivered in a British accent so thick that much of it sounded like an unintelligible mess to my American ears. I didn’t care; it didn’t matter what he was saying; I’d been hooked.
Two albums later (Showtime in ’04 and Maths + English, released last year in the UK and just a week ago in the States), Dizzee’s sound has evolved. And so has his life. He was 18 when Boy in da Corner dropped; a record of bedroom beats and ghetto-life lyrics. Now, at the ripe old age of 23, Dizzee’s seen half the world, transcended his more than humble hood background and become an international superstar. Club tracks have crept into his records (although nothing quite “radio-friendly” has appeared just yet), he’s sampled sounds from the far east all the way to using hooks from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and his lyrics have slowly become a bit more intelligible. But don’t get it twisted; he’s still grimy through and through.
After being patched through to Dizzee’s hotel room, waiting patiently as the phone rings, I cross my fingers that perhaps his accent is a bit affected, a bit put-on, for his performances on disc. He picks up the phone, “Hello?”
“Hey, is this Dizzee?”
“Yeah, speaking.” Wow, no problem, he’s definitely British, that much is evident from the first syllable, but it’s all coming through loud and clear. My accent barrier worries melt away.
“Hey, man,” I continue. “This is Kirk from Real Detroit, how’s it going?”
Dizzee replies, “Wuzgahdon, bosscoo?” My neck grows hot. I have absolutely no idea what he’s just said to me. “Wuzgahdon, bosscoo?” What!? I try to think of a response, but I don’t have a clue how to approach that. I have a half hour to talk with Dizzee on the phone and I’m already struggling with our greetings. As my journalistic ego braces itself for a massive bruise, I dive in, praying that he’s just woken up and still has his sleepy voice on; or perhaps he’s got a mouthful of Australian breakfast.
“Man, how tired must you be right now?” I ask.
“D’you what the fuck, man? I keep fallin’ asleep at fuckin’ mad times!” he shoots back. He’s got a smile on, I can hear it in his voice, and if I plug my non-phone ear and focus all of my energy on his words I can understand them. Most of them. He continues, “I went to sleep too early, smoked too much weed, then everyone just kicks back and sits down and before you know it, I’m asleep, and then I have to get up at, like, two o’clock in the mornin’ and have to sit there and wait for the sun to come up.”
A quick editorial note before we dive headfirst into our conversation: I’m fighting the urge to spell everything out phonetically (though some of it I will), as it would make for a difficult read. But doesn’t “anova fing” sound so much cooler than “another thing?” Oh well, let’s press on: it’s six in the morning and Dizzee’s raring to go. If his words read unfriendly at any point in this interview don’t get confused; he was anything but. Dizzee Rascal, rude boy though he might be, is the perfect gentleman. The perfect weed smoking, curse dropping, grime-spitting gentleman.
***
How’s tomorrow looking? ‘Cuz here it’s still today.
Well, the view from my bedroom … it compensates for fuckin’ bein’ up for four hours, I think. Basically, it’s paradise. It’s ridiculous.
Do you get much time to enjoy where you are, or are you pretty much just working?
Right now I’m on a little break, innit? Just before I come on tour over there.
Like a lot of hip-hop successfuls, you seem to have to defend not staying in the hood, and you’d probably have to justify vacationing in Australia; do people give you a lot of shit for not staying in the hood?
Yeah, some try. But I’ve noticed, really, that a lot of them people that say that, I was never friends with them and we never hung around, anyways. So I don’t know what the fuck they’re talkin’ ‘bout!
(Laughs) Is the word “grime” something you’re kind of getting sick of hearing or wanting to get away from, or do you still embrace it?
I definitely embrace it. I still embrace the whole culture ‘cuz it’s a major part o’ me, innit? But as far as makin’ music, I’ll jus’ kinda make what feels right at the time.
You mention paranoia a lot on record, is that something you struggle with a lot?
I smoke way too much skunk, mate.
(Laughs) I kind of assumed that.
Really, yeah, but sometimes there’s a good reason to. I’m from urban background and there’s certain sides of my life that can create paranoia easily.
When Boy in da Corner came out you were only 18. Do you think that was part of the reason people paid so much attention; how young you were?
Yeah, it always kicks people up the ass a bit when they see young people doin’ things, especially to that scale, to that level. And I’ve worked my way from the bottom — like really, really from the bottom — as gritty as it kinda gets, and fought my way through. I came up through illegal radio stations.
Yeah, when you were doing that — in the pirate radio days — did you have a vision of yourself as successful as you’ve become? Did it seem like it would ever happen at the time?
A part of me kinda would hafta say yes, ‘cuz to do it you hafta kinda believe it and be it. And then the other half of me is just like, “I don’t know what the fuck’s gonna happen; I’m just gonna do it.” Because it was a really, really volatile, really hostile kinda place I was comin’ from and nuffin’ was ever really certain. You never knew what was gonna happen next.
Were you surprised by the success?
Yeah, I’m still surprised today! Sometimes I still get baffled when I can go to somewhere like Australia and I get recognized in the street and people want an autograph.
I gotta ask you: why wasn’t “Fix Up Look Sharp” the biggest song in the world?
Ahh, thanks, man. I don’t know, I think people still need to get used to a British accent over hip-hop. And to be fair, it is a pretty hardcore record, innit? If you see the hip-hop that really is massive, it’s either some club shit or some love shit, and [“Fix Up Look Sharp”] was some fuckin’ bash your head shit.
And the accent, like you said, definitely has to be a barrier. I mean, yours is thick, man. Even talking to you right now I’m plugging my other ear so I can make sure I understand everything you’re saying.
Right, right, right.
And “Fix Up” particularly, I still don’t know half of what you say in that song and I’ve heard it hundreds of times.
Yeah, people say that about me a lot of the time, that was part of the reason with Maths + English I definitely have slowed it down a bit, ‘cuz I want people to know what I’m sayin’ … or half of what I‘m sayin’ at least.
I’ve had the UK version of Maths + English for a while, but with it just coming out in the States they sent a version into the office here, but it’s the clean version, and it just seems … pointless.
I thought that as well! D’you know?
I mean half of each track has to be missing.
(Laughs) Pretty much, yeah, you’re right.
Does that irritate you?
It’s kinda good in the same way, though, ‘cuz some people don’t like to hear the swearin’ and there’s kids as well, and it’s not good for them to be hearin’ shit like that. But you’re right, it does kinda take away a lot of the song.
Were your younger days pretty violent?
Yeah, man … Violence’s always been a major part. Typical life; just dumb thug shit, innit, mate?
Lyrically you seem to kind of go both ways in your take on violence and the gangster lifestyle; sometimes you’re really sitting back and analyzing it, not being a part of it, and other times it seems very much you, very much where you come from.
Yeah, definitely, man. I’ve survived some unbelievable shit, man. (Laughs) For real, like, whoa. When I look back at it, it’s like, “Wow, how the fuck’d I get outta that?” But that ain’t ev'rythin’ when it comes to the music.
Do you ever worry about promoting violence?
Yeah, sometimes it is a concern, like, “Ahh, fuck, I can’t say that ‘cuz o ‘the kids, ‘cuz o’ the youth,” and then the same kids will run up on me on the street tryin’ to fuck me up! So it just is what it is, nah’mean? That’s the realness.
Well, Dizzee, thanks so much for taking so much time to talk to me at 6:30 in the morning there in Australia. Enjoy your time off; say hi to a kangaroo or something for me.
(Laughs) Aight, mate. Take care. | RDW
Dizzee Rascal • 5/14 • The Crofoot Ballroom
|
|
|
 |
