Watch the video for Dizzee's next single 'Dream' which is
released on 8th November
It didn't take long for 19-year-old Dizzee Rascal to release his second album – it's only a year since the Bow-born MC and producer released the groundbreaking Boy In Da Corner. You know what happened next: critical shock
and awe both here and in America; winning the Mercury Prize; selling over 250,000 copies and scoring top a 20 hit with Fix Up, Look Sharp. But while all that was happening, Dylan Mills was writing lyrics, making tunes, and recording the angry,
funny, sonically-staggering 14 tracks that make up Showtime. "A year ago I was straight off road, straight from outside the off-licence. Boy In Da Corner is that perspective – back against the wall, only seeing what's in front of you. It
was harsh, bashing around music. I've moved forward, travelled, digested a lot. That's why this album is called Showtime. You think I'm just hardcore, raw? I'm more."
"I'm in transition," says Mills. "I've lived a full life and I want to talk about it. That stretches way before Boy In Da Corner, that's why I ain't talking about planes or champagne
or things. I'm curious of where I come from. I ain't completely detached." By now, most know the bones of the Dizzee Rascal story – the only child who grew up on a high-rise estate in Bow, E3 with his mother. He was expelled from three
schools until he found a teacher, Tim Smith, who noted Mills' talent and let him use the computers at the back of the classroom. On leaving school, he wrote I Luv U, the breakneck underground smash that talked about teenage pregnancy over
stuttering, end-of-the-world beats. First as a jungle DJ, Dizzy D, then as a pirate radio phenomenon, then as part of the talent-
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