Pitchfork

[Posted Monday, November 3rd, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

American fans of British undaground hip-hop (all twelve of you), rejoice! Matador recently signed Dizzee Rascal, famed 18-year old British rapper and winner of the Mercury Music Prize. Matador is teaming up with Rascal's UK label XL Recordings to release Rascal's debut album, Boy In Da Corner, on American soil. The CD will drop some time in January, so in short: don't bother paying $30 for the import! What this all boils down to, basically, is that for all of you connoisseurs of indie hip-hop out there who are tiring of Definitive Jux and MF Doom, prepare to be fulfilled.

Matador seemed psyched about the possibility of signing the fresh young star. Let's hear it from them: "18 years of age and hailing from East London, Dizzee's unique hybrid of hip-hop, drum & bass and UK garage coupled with his explosive real-life tales of street crime, poverty, sex and guns, are a combination unlike any MC we've heard-- underground or over." Yeah, dog.

Rascal's debut album has met with near universal praise from critics, including New Musical Express and The Guardian (whose reviews, alongside Pitchfork's, are reprinted in total on Matador's news page)-- even breaking onto our own Best New Music page. The Guardian had this to say about Rascal and his British audience: "Whether anybody will listen [to Rascal] seems questionable. Both Dizzee Rascal's music and message are wildly unpalatable, and the British record-buying public is not currently renowned for wild risk-taking." Same here, brotha, but stranger things have been known to happen in America once the British hype machine has had its way with something. Let's hope the American audience is looking for something a little more hardcore.