Dizzee Rascal: Boy in Da Corner

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Young Mr Rascal — 18-year-old East Londoner Dylan Mills — is a precocious garage-rap talent and this debut has him shortlisted for Britain's Mercury Prize, alongside the likes of Radiohead, jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch and Coldplay.

His appeal is in the minimal and lo-fi production (not much more than a beat box of weird electronic beats, and some tape loops and samples), his adolescent vocals, and street narratives which are closer to the back of the bike sheds than a back alley. His focus is local — tenement block and street life — and he feels the good days of childhood already slipping away ("It was only yesterday life was a touch more sweet") while shooting smart humour throughout to leaven the otherwise cynical message of urban despair.

His I Luv U banter, with an equally juvenile and stroppy Jeanine Jacques (teenage pregnancy and sort of, My friend likes you stuff), deserves to be a hit and there is ample evidence on this mighty impressive debut that Dizzee Rascal will be around educating and amusing us for a while.

Label: XL