#raskit

Before I had ever heard the term Grime used, one of my first introductions to British Hip Hop was Dizzee Rascal through songs like Bonkers and Here 2 China. As I got into Grime, I listened to his albums like like Boy In Da Corner, which is a certified classic and an essential listen for anyone who wants to get into Grime. Having a classic debut album that’s so good can be both a gift and a curse as that album has stood the test of time, but people constantly compare everything Dizzee does to that album when he’s made a lot of good music since. He has shown his consistency with albums like Showtime and Maths + English and he has also shown that he can make other kinds of music with Tongue N Cheek. At a time in the late 2000s and early 2010s when the rappers and Grime MCs were making really pop songs, Dizzee found a lot of success but his album The Fifth was quite the misstep. In 2017, Dizzee returned to a scene that had completely changed since The Fifth with Raskit, which showed people that he’s still got it. While I rank Raskit pretty high in Dizzee’s catalog compared to some of his other albums, it did not have enough variety for how long the album was. I think he did a good job a year later with the Don’t Gas Me EP which was a short project with a lot of variety. As Dizzee has entered what seems like the third stage in his career, it appears that he doesn’t really have anything to prove to anyone. E3 AF has a very different energy from his other albums and I bet it has to do with the fact that Dizzee started producing again after a long period of not producing his albums. I love this energy and this is some of the best production that he has ever rapped on. It’s a very hype album and that is really what I wanted from him. He comes right in with his punchy bars and fast flows on God Knows, which also features P Money and the album pretty much does not dip in quality for the rest of the 10-songs (I love that this is a shorter album). With Dizzee being one of the greats, it felt like the features really showed up to rap and gave Dizzee some amazing verses. Frisco and D Double E (who just dropped new albums) really delivered with their verses on That’s Too Muchand matched Dizzee’s bars. Chip, who just dropped a song featuring Dizzee and never fails to kill a feature, killed it like always on the anthemic L.L.L.L. (Love Life Live Large). Songs like this are the kind I love from Dizzee. Not only did the guest features step it up and matched Dizzee, but Dizzee matched the features. Ghetts and Kano absolutely killed it on Eastside in their own unique ways as they rap really differently but Dizzee did not slack one bit with these amazing MCs as this is probably his best verse on the album. You can’t spit a weak verse with all of these great features. That song was everything I wanted a Dizzee, Ghetts and Kano song to be. Although these are the kinds of songs I love from Dizzee, there is plenty of variety as Dizzee makes a fun pop song that doesn’t sound forced at all with Body Loose, he raps over a Garage beat on You Don’t Know, and successfully tries his hand at UK Drill on Act Like You Know. In addition to songs where he is displaying his rapping abilities, he reflects on Energies + Powers. I love this album and there really are not many things I can complain about. When I saw Ocean Wisdom on the tracklist, I knew that song was gonna be fast and bass-heavy and they didn’t disappoint as they showed up to rap with their extra-fast flows and back-to-back verses. However, I feel like the piano on the hook and at the start of the song kind of messes with the energy that the verses are full of. I like Be Incredible and I thought it was a good way to end the album but I didn’t really like the hook. I don’t know who Rob Jones TV is but he sounded a bit too much like Chris Martin for me. These are minimal criticisms as I love everything else about this album and it has very high replay value for me. This may be bold, but I would say this is Dizzee’s best album behind Boy In Da Corner. I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through.