You've got to show 'nuff respect to a rapper who thinks sampling a song from a ‘40s musical about cross-dressing men is a good idea. This is why Dizzee Rascal succeeds were so many other yelping MCs fail – he refuses to take himself too seriously.
A naughty little tike in his youth, he was chucked out of four schools, fought with teachers, stole cars and robbed pizza delivery men. At his fifth school, his music teacher nurtured his talent and thus was a little rascal born.
Mr Rascal’s music tends to keep you on your toes – mixing a dizzee-ing (see what we did there?) array of garage MC-ing, conventional rap, grime and ragga with extremely eclectic samples and exotic styles. His debut album, Boy in da Corner won him the 2003 Mercury Prize, while follow-ups Showtime and Maths + English have also done the biz.
Never mind that he didn't really hit paydirt until 'Dance Wiv Me', his team-up with Electro man-of-the-moment Calvin Harris. Something happened with that track that changed his status from 'spokeybloke for UK hip hop' to 'cor blimey! we've got ourselves a proper pop star here'.
This, followed by a further number one with Bonkers, leaves us to conclude that Rascal's time on top is coming around again.
