You could liken Dizzee Rascal to a British 50 Cent, what with his scrappy charisma, status as stabbing survivor and being touted as one of the figureheads of music from the 'hood - in his case, the angsty, UK-born hip hop, ragga, jungle brew known as Grime. But then factor in his zig-zag flow, humility and overall low-key-ness and you've got a different artist altogether. I caught up with the Mercury Prize winner after the release of his third album, Maths and English and gabbed about everything from reality TV, to the late Pimp C, to L-O-V-E (I guess I'll leave the rhyming to the professionals).

Giant Step's Resident: Your song "Da Feelin'" on your new album, Maths and English is all about summertime. What's a typical Dizzee Rascal summer like?

Dizzee Rascal: The past few years, in the summers I've been doing festivals. I haven't been hanging around or nothin.' When it was summer when I was a kid, it was the usual, I go outside, start trouble...up to no good.

Just hanging out...

Pretty much. There might be raves. Probably rave all out...

Are you still in the rave scene?

Naw, naw, I don't remember the last rave I did. Every now and then I might do a little one-off. The rave scene is super wild. It was wild when was in it but now it's overly wild, there's no point in fighting it. It's not like I could go and be undercover. I'd have to go with some goons or something. I go to clubs still. There's certain clubs I go to.

What are some of the clubs you go to?

There's a club called Fabric [in the UK]. I've got true players in that so I head there every end of the month. That's where I go if I want to rave. They've got places like Embassy and I like going to them places as well but that's a bit more [fancy.] Get some nice girls in there...dressed up, [getting] champagnes...that kinda shit. But if I want to rave and sweat and actually have a good time, I go to Fabric...I get out here for a minute just to chill, talk, whatever, get drunk and I go right down to the base underneath the floor, it's fuckin' ridiculous the sound system in there.

Do people leave you alone?

Naw, I get down, mosh. Strangers become my best friends quickly.

What are some other places?

For ages, I really weren't going out so [Fabric and Embassy] were like the main two places.

Listening to your new album, it's seems like you're a bit over the industry. What was recording Maths and English like?

Hard work, but fun. It was a lot more fun than anything I've worked on before. Songs took months, literally. Big tracks like "Sirens" and even "Da Feelin.'" " Da Feelin'" probably took the longest because I started working on what I at first had thought would be a single. We got Joss Stone on it...just loads of different things on it. Just back and forth, back and forth for ages because [producer] Shy FX was out of the country, then I was out of the country, just shit like that.

But I wanted to make an album that was exciting again. I kind of veered off that with [my previous album] Showtime. That was kind of about showing off and kind of doing it for the critics. This one was kind of like for the listener, for me again, for the festivals.

Do you think taking that approach to Showtime paid off?

Yeah...it's probably [an album] I listen to less....but all that had to come out, I couldn't hold all that in. It just was what it was. It sold pretty much the same as [my first album] Boy in the Corner. And the difference is Maths and English came out at a time where records are selling a whole lot less than when Boy in the Corner came out. So Maths and English would probably have been a big album.

On songs like, "Where Da G's" you're also calling out fake people. Is that inspired by personal experience?

That song was really just supposed to be a cocky thing, just being a bit cheeky, like "let's dick around and make a song about fake G's." A lot of these songs just start out with lyrics and eventually I find the beat that goes with it well and there's a marriage between them. It was a conscious thing as well, like people taking this whole "G" thing a bit too serious and most people ain't really been through enough to really justify it. Not that I'm someone whose crying about it but...I'm just kind of pointing it out.

And the whole scene is kind of taking it too seriously. Soon you'll have to be a fuckin' mass murderer before you can be a rapper. It's getting a bit ridiculous. And where is it getting black people? Especially the whole thing that they're pushing on to us. Crack doesn't work for black people...that's my opinion. I've got drug-dealer friends. [Because of] my background, I've just seen it ruin more than it does good.

Do you think that's more the fault of the industry or the artists?

Just everything in general. Rap music...is so engulfed with an image and I'm not throwing blame about on no one but people are just getting into it, and I'm just lettin' them know, it's ok, you can be yourself. You don't have to be a psychopath to be a rapper. You can just rap.

That's what you're talking about in the song "Hard Back." It's all advice.

Yeah, just through my experience and shit I've had to deal with since I was 15 and before I had a record deal. Coming up through the underground and the bullshit I had to deal with there.

What's some of the best advice you've received?

To just keep doing what you're doing. It's a simple thing. Like everyone from gangsters to everyday [people], just keep doing what you're doing. When I go back to where I'm from, some of the most gruesome guys that you don't want to meet, [when they see me] you see their normal side come out like, "keep doing what you're doing."

You also seem very cautious of groupies and to an extent, women in general. Is there a special woman in your life?

Yeah, there's been a few. I'm all for love. Whatever everyone believes, I've really been in love. I'm a for-the-moment guy. I love the ladies, I get myself in trouble a bit.

Are you in love now?

Yeah, I would say that. Don't put that down.

But you answered the question.

You're dirt. I'm trying to keep up the single thing...

But we want to hear this. We want to know about Dizzee Rascal.

I'm in love with myself, rather.

Well, tell me more about your recent tour in Australia. I heard you had a great time.

What did you hear?

I just heard you a great time. I heard you were enjoying yourself.

Yeah, good. So, yeah, uh, I had a concert on a plane from Auckland to Sydney. That was pretty good.
[It was] a two hour flight. So, towards the end of the journey it was like 5, 6 tracks [total]. We did the MTV awards a couple days after that.

Being there is like being in England. The shows were easily one of the best experiences of my life as far as performing. The people in general, Australians are wicked.

What was it like working with UGK?

That was one of the points where I felt like, "OK this is serious." Because I look up to them so much and I'm still a fan to this day and I still bump...good music. Pimp C's voice still empowers me, makes me feel like I'm the shit. I feel exclusive when I'm listening to that shit. I'm on their album [Underground Kings] as well. It's the first track on their album, it's their last album [together]. It's one of those mad things. I can't deny, I've been really blessed and lucky to have done some mad shit, like touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers or touring with Justin Timberlake or supporting Jay-Z when I was 18.

Did you speak a lot with the late Pimp C?

We talked on the phone. He told me, "you're a king, Dizzee." I'll never forget that. He was a lot like me in a lot of ways. He could be quite random and a bit loopy and quite excitable. I think that's where we connected. Now I know how I sound to people because I can get a bit like that. Bun B I kind of look at him as like an uncle or a big brother or something like that.

Is Bun B very different from you in terms of personality?

We've got some similar traits. He can be pretty quick-tempered. But on the other side he really carries himself right, he's quite gentle and he's really well-mannered. He's a stand-up guy and quite worldly for a gangster rapper. He's probably one of the most intelligent people I've spoken to ever.

Tell me more about the group you signed to your label, Newham Generals...

They're like a black Prodigy. The last couple things they've done is some amazing shit. For me it's like Boy in the Corner all over again... the sound, the intensity and the quality of the music...

You've got these funny YouTube videos with all of you dancing on tour and stuff. Would you ever do a reality show?

I don't know...but I sit there glued to them. I love "Hogan Knows Best" and Snoop Dogg's ["Fatherhood"]. Especially the Snoop Dogg one. I suppose I'd be [right for it] but not a "Big Brother" or something following me around. I suppose there's a barrier as well but I don't know. It might be a bit too close. I like the distance. I like to do music, put it out, do my promo and fuck off for a bit...be out of the frame for a minute and live my life.

Well, Snoop Dogg is into country, now. Is there a genre you want to explore more?

Rock, I suppose. That's what "Sirens" was about. That was a major acheivement for me because I really was into heavy metal when I was young. Doing that song and doing it well, it doesn't sound like an attempt to [make] a rap-rock record. It's just well executed and it made me proud...because it could be really shit and it wouldn't have done me no favors. I saw Rage Against The Machine at [the Big Day Out Festival in Australia] for the first time as well in February and that blew me away. That made me want to make a rock record for a few weeks.

Like an entire album?

Yeah.

Who would you collaborate with on your dream rock album?

I would definitely get the Chili Peppers in there because I was on tour with them. Korn, I'd like to do something with them. Rage Against The Machine, obviously. That's my style.

Is there a topic that you're really sick of talking about?

When people say, "you're not Grime no more." All I'm doing is all I've ever done which is make music that I've felt from my heart and try to put it across the best way I can. Five, six years ago, they called it Grime and I had to conform too. I didn't come out and say, "oh, I'm making Grime music." People named it and pointed to me and said, "alright, you're Grime." But I just make music. But it's all good as well, I'm glad to have been a pioneer and made a bit of history but the world's not stoppin.'



Maths and English is in stores now