.Dizzee Rascals career has been on the rise since it started. After winning the Mercury Prize with his brash debut Boy In Da Corner, the rapper's brand of edgy council-estate rap has increasingly become aware of mainstream tastes, and his fan base has grown wider accordingly. On Tongue N Cheek, Dizzee finally does way with the gnarly 8-bit bleeps of his album Showtime and the swagger of Maths+English to reach fully for the pop crown. Fun, infectious singles "Dance wiv Me"--featuring R&B singer Chrome and disco don Calvin Harris, "Holiday" and "Bonkers" (featuring Armand Van Helden) have all landed high in the UK charts, and are solid indicators of the rest of the album. Slick production, catchy hooks and a mainstream club atmosphere are in abundance here as the rapper delivers a relentlessly upbeat mix of street tales and good, dirty fun on "Road Rage", "Money Money" and the stomping "Dirtee Cash", (which utilises 1990 hip-house smash "Dirty Cash (Money Talks)". While its true that a certain amount of Rascals former complexity has been sacrificed to achieve this new feel-good sound, he thankfully goes beyond girls, money and video games, delivering constant witty wordplay and talking about politics and the recession on tracks like the Aswad-sampling tune "Cant Tek No More". Slower jams like "Freaky Freaky" (about having sex on council estate landings) and "Chillinwiv da Man Dem" (which has a laid-back G funk feel) are there to provide respite but this is unapologetically a party record--and a flippin great one at that.Product DescriptionThe fourth studio album from the British rapper songwriter and producer featuring the number one singles 'Dance Wiv Me', 'Bonkers' and 'Holiday'. Review One of the biggest shocks of East London-born rapper Dizzee Rascals career to date was the relative curve ball of his third long-player, 2007s Maths + English.Its unashamed mainstream ambition and sheen momentarily blinded many early supporters to its genuine brilliance. People wrinkled their noses at the much-maligned Lyn Collins Think (About It) break, which was all over the track Pussyole (Old Skool), but it probably had a different resonance to the young artist than it did older listeners. (The Woo! Yeah! sample was once the staple of critically reviled early 90s hardcore and hip-house.) Factor in turns from both Lily Allen and Arctic Monkeys, and ubiquitous use of US gangsterisms, and he looked like he was playing a dangerous game. Yet Dizzee achieved the seemingly impossible task of jumping from the UK underground to the pop charts without alienating his core fans, with him since 2003 debut Boy in da Corner.Anyone wanting a return to the grime of six years ago will be disappointed by Tongue N Cheekonly the stuttering Money Money comes close. The man Jeremy Paxman called Mr Rascal has been compared to Jay-Z with little irony for two years now, and the parallel is useful in terms of ambition and exposure. But in the UK were keener on a cheeky boy rather than a thughence the rascaland there is much humour on show across this record that stops well short of being outr or offensive.Youll have already heard Bonkers, Dizzees smash with Armand Van Helden, and the Calvin Harris and Chrome-starring Dance Wiv Me and Holiday. Whats surprising, though, is that this is packed with further contenders for top ten hitsit comes on like a British urban Thriller. Already mooted as a future single is Dirtee Cash, a timely credit crunch reworking of the Home Counties house classic Dirty Cash (Money Talks). On Road Rage he spits a tale of crashing his Mini Cooper into a police car over tough, almost industrial beats, but best of all is the Shy FX-produced dancehall of Cant Tek Me No More, which echoes the dub reggae-friendly proto big-beat of such 90s acts as Monkey Mafia and Lionrock.A monstrously successful fourth album, Tongue N Cheek is the release to officially crown Dizzee as UK danc
