Dizzee Rascal, the artist of the song for our music video, was born Dylan Kwabena Mills on 18th September 1984. He originated from Boe, London, England and is a well known Ghanaian rapper, record producer, song writer and singer.
Dizzee has been a main stream artist since 2000 and is still producing tracks now, for the record label, Dirtee Skank who he has been signed to since 2003. From 2004 until 2007 he was singed to XL Recordings.He has recorded a wide range of songs, independently as well as with other artists, including: Calvin Harris, Wiley, Tinchy Stryder, Arctic Monkeys, Shirley Bassey, Shakira and Basement Jaxx. This music is a blend of garage, hip-hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music. He is best known for his number one hits 'Dance wiv Me', 'Holiday', 'Dirtee Disco', 'Shout' and of course, 'Bonkers'.
Dizzees father died when he was young and spent most of his life in a single parented family by his mother. He has issues as a child and was violent and disruptive. He frequently got kicked out of school and expelled from 4 secondary schools in 4 years. It was his teachers that first called him 'rascal', creating his now stage name, Dizzee Rascal.
It was also at school where he first began making music. Encouraged by his music teacher, Mr Smith, he worked on the schools computers and then attended a summer workshop based on music organised by an organisation of which he is now a patron, 'Tower Hamlets Summer University', before his mother bought him his first set of turntables. His main style of music is grime and his vocals featured on the tracks are very distinctive and fast, featuring the main rapping themes of a broken family, faithless mentors and a lack of support.
He started out as an amateur DJ, working for his local pirate radio station and at just 16 produced his first single 'I Luv U', before signing to XL records as an official solo artist. In 2003 his first album, 'Boy in da Corner' was released and the second single released from it, 'Fix up, Look Sharp' gave him his first UK number 1 and the following month he was awarded the Mercury Prize for best album of 2003. One of the songs was featured in a film, 'Kidulthood', and one that wasn't officially released as a single, made its presence well known on the underground music scene.
Dizzee brought out his first solo album, Boy in da Corner. This was released to universal critical acclaim in August 2003, entering the UK Top 40 at.
Next Dizziee boright out Showtime. In 2004, Dizzee Rascal won the NME award for Innovation. His second album Showtime was released in September of the same year, eclipsing the peak of his debut album by entering theUK albums chart at number 8.
On the 4th June 2007 Dizzee's third album was brought out, Maths + English.
He stated in an interview before the album's release that "Maths" refers to producing, in terms of beats, deals and money and "English" to writing lyrics.The first single off this album, Sirens was released on 21 May.
Dizzee Rascal released his fourth studio album, Tongue N' Cheek, on 21 September 2009. It included his four number-one hits "Dance Wiv Me" "Holiday", "Bonkers" and "Dirtee Disco". Its release was announced on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where Dizzee Rascal revealed some details about the album, including track information and production.
Dizzee Rascal has created his own record label, called Dirtee Stank. The first white label release of "I Luv U" was made on Dirtee Stank, released when he was 16,although both of his albums and their subsequent singles have been released under XL Recordings. The label's MySpace page states that the ethos of the company is "about bridging the gap between indie, majors and the street. Stank is the way forwards". The label's alternative logo is a picture of flies circling faeces – when asked why this logo was chosen, Dizzee stated that it was the "streetest thing I could think of".
