Lovebox

Dizzee Rascal

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Playing on the Main Stage Friday.

Tongue N Cheek

To start with, a taster. What can people expect from the new Dizzee Rascal album?

 “It’s called Tongue ‘ n’ Cheek”, explains the 24 year-old East Londoner, who recently became the first British solo artist to ever have two consecutive number one singles on his own independent label, “Because it’s naughty but nice. It’s a pop album, but it’s got a bit of everything, musically – B-More hip-hop, reggae, house. There’s some pretty cheeky shit going on in the lyrics as well. As much as everyone loves me at the moment, there are still going to be some outraged parents.”

 “I was listening to Snoop’s Doggystyle”, Dizzee continues, “and I thought ‘This is the kind of thing I need to be doing’. Not exactly that album, obviously, but something with the same happy, upbeat feel to it. People need cheering up at the moment, and I wanted to make a record everyone could have a party to. I tried a bit of that with Maths + English, but there are certain songs on that album, which when they come on - well, it’s not a party any more. With this one, there’s a couple of darker moments, but you can play it all the way through – there ain’t too much downtime”.

Dizzee Rascal’s second album, Showtime, found him simultaneously toughening up and elasticating the claustrophobically street-wise sound of 2003’s Mercury prize-winning debut Boy In Da Corner. In the same way, his new record builds on the foundations laid by its increasingly diverse predecessor. But where Maths + English’s poppier, r’n’b-tinged moments like ‘Flex’ and ‘Bubbles’ were successful stylistic experiments, Tongue ‘n’ Cheek finds Dizzee revisiting the same more accessible territory with new-found confidence and absolute conviction.

“It’s as simple as just getting better at what I do”, Dizzee explains, “trying a lot of different things, and working out what works and what doesn’t”.

From the breezy summertime soul of “Chillin’ Wiv Da Man Dem”, to the Top Shop disco of upcoming single “Holiday”, Dizzee Rascal’s fourth album finds him expanding his musical range virtually at will. And with the more familiar sounds of the gleefully irresponsible “Road Rage” and the hilariously 18-rated “Freaky Freaky” confirming that he’s not lost touch with his lyrical home turf,Tongue ‘n’ Cheek looks set to translate the past year’s commercial breakthrough directly into the album charts.

After “Dance Wiv Me”’s four-week stay at number one in the summer of 2008, Dizzee Rascal started turning up in all sorts of unexpected places. He went head-to-head with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight; took a turn behind Matt Lucas’ drum-kit on the re-launch edition of Shooting Stars (“I used to love that show when I was a kid, so it was great to actually be on it); and shared Jonathan Ross’ green room with Tom Hanks, dressed in an impeccable white suit (“Tom Hanks was the nicest guy you could ever meet – he kept quoting me Snoop lyrics”).

Having limbered up on this spring’s sold out UK arena tour with The Prodigy (“They’re the pinnacle of Rave - I hope I’m still doing it like that in twenty years time; well, either that or playing the cello and watching BBC 2”), the man Paxo called ‘Mr Rascal’ was now ready to go back out on the road in his own right. With the festival season looming, Dizzee had a not-so-secret weapon up his sleeve, and that weapon was “Bonkers.”

“He just emailed it to me and said ‘Here’s something you might like’”, Dizzee remembers of his first encounter with the Armand Van Helden backing-track that he was about to upgrade into 2009’s biggest summer anthem.

“I was on tour in America at the time, and the first time I heard it, it just reminded me of Ibiza - one of them big euphoric dance tunes from the nineties. I knew I didn’t need to put too much on it, and I remember the lyric coming to me when everyone was swimming in the hotel pool in Denver, Colorado. It’s just about what it feels like being on tour – ‘I wake up every day is a daydream’ – and how you’ve got to keep a balance between letting yourself go and knowing when to stop”.

“I ended up going to meet Armand a month or so afterwards”, Dizzee continues. “He’s got this massive flat in New York with a studio in it, and the biggest collection of music videos I’ve ever seen – this guy puts MTV to shame. He showed me the video for “Egyptian Lover” which I’d never seen before, and that was amazing”.

From the university literature professor marvelling at the inspired use of paradox in the couplet “A heavy bass-line/Is my kind of silence”, to the two year-old child who cackles with delight every time they see the bit where Dizzee’s face grins from the mouth of a giant cardboard shark, the video for “Bonkers” has brought the same surge of pure joy to everyone who’s seen it. This euphoric dance virus has already proved more infectious than swine-flu, and going straight to the top of the singles and download charts with first week sales of over a hundred thousand was only the beginning.

With a little help from “Bonkers”, Dizzee’s performance at this year’s Glastonbury Festival turned into a landmark moment in the history of British black music. While those watching back at home might not have got to enjoy the Jeremy Paxman intro tape, they could always catch up with it later on the Newsnight web-site. And “Bonkers” wasn’t the only song that a sixty thousand-strong crowd knew all the words to. With early singles “Fix Up Look Sharp” and “Jus’ A Rascal” getting equally ecstatic reactions, it’s clear Dizzee Rascal hasn’t just broken through the glass ceiling, he’s swept up the splinters and recycled them into a lead-crystal decanter.

A week later, at Hyde Park’s Wireless Festival, Dizzee followed rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa onto the main stage. With a set that borrows from The Ting Ting’s “That’s Not My Name” and MIA’s “Paper-Planes”, as well as Tongue ‘n’ Cheek’s emotional Stevie V tribute “Dirtee Cash”, The Rasket is currently fulfilling hip-hop’s promise on a scale which previously seemed unattainable for a British artist.

Just as the Hyde Park show was coming towards its climax (not “Bonkers” on this occasion, but Calvin Harris’ rave outro to Dizzee’s next single “Holiday”, which somehow excited an even more off-the-hook reaction of free-form hands-in-the-air hysteria) there was a flurry of activity alongside the stage. Taking their place among the usual close-knit throng of friends, journalists, Dirtee Stank employees and Goldie - in a blur of boxing moves and slightly ill-advised street handshakes - were Prince Harry and a group of his very loud friends. It turned out that they knew all the words to “Bonkers”, too.

It’s a long way from the underground garage raves of the very late nineties to entertaining the third-in-line to the throne on the same stage as Blur’s reunion show. Yet the great thing about the way that Dizzee Rascal has made that journey is that he’s embraced all its possibilities without ever compromising the essential truth of who he is.  “I’m enjoying being a pop star at the moment”, Dizzee grins, “and the best thing about it is, I’ve done it all on my own terms”.

“A song like ‘Holiday’ is still a gamble”, he continues, “because I know it’s gonna effect people’s perception of me in certain areas. But in a way, that’s kind of the point. I don’t know what people think I am now, and that’s good, because it means I can do whatever I want”.