“Da Feelin” - Dizzee Rascal’s Maths & English Review

ALBUM REVIEWS    By Gotty™ on July 11, 2007 at 4:11 am

Words by Matthew Mundy

Straight from the bowels of an East London council estate (England’s projects/public housing), Dizzee Rascal’s record output belies his age – a fresh-faced 22, he’s now three albums deep with his newest release, Maths and English. Along with Kano he has come to symbolize, and even embody grime for anybody outside of England. Whether that’s fair or not is a different question altogether – the question at hand here, of course, is whether his new album lives up to the rather lofty heights set by its predecessors. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite hit those heady peaks, for his branching out has left a more uneven album in its wake, one that both highlights his strengths and weaknesses.

For those unacquainted with Dizzee, his voice is a unique beast in and of itself– it’s a versatile instrument, bouncing around from barely controlled anger to condescension to uncertainty to exuberance, coming perilously close to cracking the entire time. He mostly just sounds barely hinged though, constantly on the verge of losing his shit – even on his happier songs (like “Showtime’s Dream”) he sounds like he’s locked in an epic battle with his own demons, and maybe he is. It’s a startling voice, and one he often harnesses to potent effect.

The first single “Sirens” underscores that tension. Deftly sidestepping most problems with the entire rap rock genre, “Sirens” is a monster, all thundering drums, crashing guitars and sirens wafting over the mess. The best parts of the song, though, are when the drums drop out completely, leaving Dizzee to showcase his lyrical dexterity, doubling up his flow and stretching it out, making the most of the space he’s been
given. The second single, “Pussy’ole (Old Skool)”, is a colossus as well, nicking Rob Base’s ‘It Takes Two’ to turn out a tour-de-force of manic, colliding torrents of sound, with Dizzee inexorably pushing it forward, bullying his way through the song. There’s also the collabo with UGK titled “Where Da G’s” which works beautifully. The beat hearkens back to his first album more than anything else – steady percussion, eerie synths, whistles and bizarre, twinkling synths layered on top, with all three emcees riding the beat perfectly.

Unfortunately, not everything works out as planned on the album. Whereas Dizzee’s first album almost solely featured the sinister, forebodings trappings of grime production (to great effect – Dizzee sounds at home on these, and his voice sounds absolutely menacing on them), and his second album branched out a bit further but still featured heavily relied on the grime sound he’s comfortable with, he really branches out here, to mixed results. “Suk My Dick” is an atrocious mess, his experiment with an amateurish sing-song flow ending in unmitigated disaster. “Da Feelin’” falters as well – the beat seems to mash up drum ‘n bass and early Kanye West, and it just doesn’t work. Though the track featuring UGK was terrific, not all of his guests fare as well. While someone like Kanye has been able to play to the
strengths of his sometimes unusual guests (i.e. “Heard ‘Em Say” with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, and “Bittersweet” with John Mayer), Dizzee seems lost when he takes on people like Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen. The former, “Temptation,” sounds like two songs forced into each other, one a percussion-heavy grime track and another a creepy Arctic Monkeys cut. The latter, “Wanna Be,” fares far worse – Lily Allen sounds ridiculous over what sounds like an outtake from her debut album, with Dizzee trying to salvage the whole sordid affair with some unconvincing tough talk.

As a whole, the album succeeds when Dizzee appropriates other genres and sounds as his own, seamlessly merging them with the distinct templates he has been able to hammer out thus far. It’s when he can’t bring others into his artistic fold, like with Turner and Allen, that he stumbles and seems to just ram together both of their styles into one ugly mélange. The young emcee has a bright future ahead of him, and in retrospect Maths and English will probably emerge as a vital stepping stone, one where he learned both more about his own strengths but, perhaps more importantly, his own limitations.

Dizzie Rascal - Maths & English

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