In 2004, Dizzee Rascal became, at 19, the youngest winner of the Mercury Prize, the most prestigious British music award. Twenty years later, the author of the determinant Boy in the Corner is always applauded for bringing out the grime English (“filth”, in the language of Shakespeare) from the shadows. This caustic and grinding rap which runs at more than 150 beats per minute (bpm) continues to irrigate, two decades later, current musical trends, from his compatriot Stormzy to the Belgian rapper Shay, via the Frenchman Orelsan – who invited him into his flagship album, The party is over. The boisterous kid from East London has become a family man who tries to channel his energy into music, always with his foot on the floor.
His new album, Don’t Take It Personal, released in February 2024 and which he will play on stage, on March 5, at La Place, in Paris, is of the quality of his very first attempt, twenty years ago, a record which allowed English rappers to free from the tutelage of the Americans, by highlighting their accent, their slang and their rave culture. On the cover of his eighth album, the rapper appears in a red Ferrari 458 trying to make his way through a herd of sheep. Allegory of a successful rapper who never blindly follows what his colleagues repeat endlessly.
It was precisely on the road, mid-February, that M The magazine of the World meets the former MC of the drum and bass raves of the mid-1990s. Real name Dylan Kwabena Mills, this London native of Nigerian father and Ghanaian mother travels around England to promote his record, preferring to play from now on in small rooms, meet specialized journalists in person.
“I try to block out the noise”
His tour manager, Paddy, is at the wheel, Dizzee Rascal has turned on the video on his smartphone and is looking at the landscape to get his bearings: “We are in Peterborough, near Cambridge, and we are going to Newcastle. » He knows the English countryside. He recorded his new record at his house in Kent, south-east of London, where he had a recording studio built at the back of his property: “I spend a lot of time with my children. Music has almost become a hobby. » “When I want to do a piece, I run into the garden and I don’t waste time”, he specifies.
Good resolutions (“Don’t explain, don’t complain, play the game and stay focused”) introduce the first stripping piece, Stay in Your Lane. During his last three years, the rapper disconnected from social networks and no longer watches news channels continuously. “I try to block out the noise, he asserts, to continue my life, not to get distracted and to stay focused on my music. Social media, criticism from journalists, all of that, to me, is just noise. »
You have 58.32% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.