A Few Thoughts On El-P & Dizzee Rascal’s Stuff White People Like 2008 Tour
I think that everyone who reads this blog is in accord that the world doesn’t need another El Producto concert review where the writer strains to cram in the words, “Orwellian,” “dystopian” and “nihilistic.” Instead, here are a few scattered thoughts from last Thursday’s LA stop on the Def Jux: Spaceships and Soy Milk 2008 World Tour.
- It’s nice to see that people are okay with liking hip-hop again. Not like I blame indie rappers for trying to push genre boundaries because let’s face it, rap’s been mired in an Andruw Jones-like slump/bloat for the majority of the decade. But if I had to watch one more rapper come on-stage with a watery three-piece backing band whose greatest musical achievement was taking acid with Bootsy Collins on the 1987 P-Funk tour stop in Scranton, I was going to stab myself with a rusty ice-pick. There is no shame in coming on-stage with just a DJ and a hype man and burning that motherfucker down. After spending the previous year touring with a band in Clockwork Orange jumpsuits, delivering diluted bass licks and dull drum fills, it’s comforting to see El back in two turntables and a microphone mode.
- Hearing El rhyme over the instrumentals for “Born to Roll,” “Can I Kick It,” and “Children’s Story” provided a nice respite from his sledgehammering Space Odyssey beats but moreover, it was also good to know that enough time has passed for artists to cop to their formative influences in a sober-eyed (if not slightly nostalgic) homage to the Golden Era. Not that rappers need to spend their time wallowing in misty-eyed reminisces about the boom-bap days. That’s what blogs are for.
- As highly as I regard El-P’s work, he’s better off leaving the political diatribes to his songs. I know he’s a polemicist and like his arch-nemesis Dubya, he doesn’t
“do nuance,” but I’m willing to guess that 96.3 percent of his audience is already supporting Obama. Therefore his anti-Clinton and McCain rants feel perfunctory and preachy. Like is Hillary Clinton not making enough of an ass of herself daily where El-P needs to make on-stage diatribes against girls prideful that a woman has gotten that far in a man’s world? So what if said woman is probably a mutant cyborg? Fuck it. Play “Mike Douglas” instead. Rants against coke-rap worshipping music journos are way funnier than those against politicians who everyone already finds unctuous in the first place.
Shave and A Haircut…Two Bits 
- To the very pretty blond girl freaking in front of me during “Stepfather Factory”: While I found you very attractive and thought that there was no reason on earth why you should ever have to find yourself in the company of a bearded white guy in a Che cap, you also might want to listen to the lyrics of the song in question. There is absolutely nothing danceable about a song that paints a harrowing picture of life under an alcoholic, abusive step-father. Nor should you be grinding to the “Overly Dramatic Truth” either. The song is a four-minute ode to being in your early 30s and having hollow, regretful, coked-out sex with naive 22-year olds. Wait a minute…
- A little bit of advice to the Myspace MC’s passing out copies of their CD in front of the venue: by passing out your demo at an indie rap show in the year 2008 you are automatically branding a scarlet “R” on your forehead for retard. If you haven’t heard, there is this little invention called the Internet and you are far better off wasting your night badgering bloggers to write about you than you are trying to hit up guys smoking cloves in angora sweaters who may or may not believe that your songs are in fact, music “for the heartbroken revolutionary.” To say nothing of naming yourself Guido Corleone, which is arguably the only rap name worse than Lil Young.
- No MC in this decade has been more over-hyped than Dizzee Rascal. Yes, this includes Lil Wayne. When Boy in Da Corner came out the rap dilettante set trumped Dizzee as the dream hybrid of Biggie, ‘Pac and The Streets. Instead, dude’s the Brit-rap Twista, minus the “Slow Jamz,” “Poppin’ Tags,” and “Po Pimp.” Granted, I’ve never heard Showtime, which Ian Cohen says is by far his best effort, but his debut and his latest, Maths and English are nigh unlistenable. Yes, he can flow just fine but his Brit patois renders everything unintelligible, which wouldn’t be damning in and of itself if he had any cadence. Instead, everything barrels out with the same rapid-fire monotone and after five minutes you’re left with a side-splitting migraine and the belief that Dizzee may also have the worst beat selection skills of any MC this side of Nas. I know that people wanted to paint Dizzee as the avatar of the grime scene (hey, remember grime?) and a poet of Britain’s disenfranchised immigrant population, but c’mon, this guy named his label Dirtee Stank. The label logo features turds with flies coming out of them. C’mon dude, you’re doing the work for me.
- Also, RIP Camu Tao.
Download:
MP3: El-P-”Fuck the Law”
MP3: El-P-”Mike Douglas”
Camu Tao Tribute:
MP3: SA Smash ft. Vast Aire-”Slide On Em”
MP3: Sa Smash-”Illy”
MP3: Camu Tao-”Hold the Floor”
MP3: Mhz-”Rocket Science”
MP3: Mhz-”Magnetics”
Stumble It!
May 27th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Great write up and great points, Weiss. Especially regarding El-P and his portrayal by most writers. That girl would’ve irked the hell out of me, too (who dances to “Stepfather Factory”? What would she have done to “Last Good Sleep” then?).
As far as Dizzee Rascal goes: Showtime>Boy In Da Corner>>>>>>Maths & English. I waited two years for that album and I ABSOLUTELY HATED IT. In many ways the Def Jux release made it even worse. Also, he has just signed Grime producer/emcee Jammer to his label but he’s never even released the Newham Generals album and that’s been almost a two year wait.
I’m doing a Grime blog soon, look out for it.
One.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:58 am
^co-sign 100% w/Dart re: Dizzee Rascal (except for me Boy in Da Corner>Showtime, though it’s close either way). no offense mr. weiss, i rate your writing in general and especially on hip hop but when it comes to grime, to put it politely, you just don’t think you know what you’re talking about. that’s not a criticism of you, rather just a reminder of how difficult it is for British music to make an impact in the States (besides boring guitar bands and, um, Portishead). Dizzee’s situation is kind of analogous to The Prodigy & Chemical Brothers 10 years ago. just when his scene seemed poise to breakthrough the bottom fell out and it went background - there’s still great music being made, it’s just all on underground mixtapes. meanwhile Dizzee’s in the lurch as the only breakout star & he decided to distance himself from his roots and go for crossover success - like most who do that he failed & “Maths & English” was, indeed, terrible. I knew it was a lost cause when I heard it had features from both Lily Allen & the guy from Arctic Monkeys. I still reckon Boy In Da Corner as an all-time classic though - really, it’s grime’s Illmatic. and I wouldn’t count him out just yet. he’s still a ridiculously talented producer and he’s only like 23 or 24.
btw I dunno if you’re interested in hearing any quality grime (which, btw is a stupid genre name made by journalists in the first place as I’m sure you know) but if you are check out Trim’s Soul Food mixtapes, he’s put out 3 so far. all fantastic stuff.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:00 am
goddamn typos - “you just don’t know what you’re talking about” - no gratuitous “think” in their.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I thought “Boy in Da Corner” was pretty good. I thought “Showtime” was a Brit-version of down south hip hop circa ‘04-’05. Didn’t hear “Maths & English” and wasn’t too crazy about the song with Bun B. Overall grime just bores me to tears (though Wiley has his moments). And I wish Sway didn’t rhyme over candyland beats.
If you want to hear a truly great and terrifying Dizzee song though, check out “Trapped”–it was a white label track and it’s ridiculous.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Yes! Emperor Rascal has no clothes. Thank you. And yes I know “Emperor Rascal” is almost an oxymoron.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Dart: Thanks as always for the good pts. I’ll have to check for that grime blog. Sadly, no “Last Good Sleep,” but he did play “Vital Nerve,” and she tried to Elaine dance to that one too.
Padraig: You’re probably right. I’ve never claimed to be an “expert” on grime and certainly not enough filters here to have much of an informed opinion other than Dizzee Rascal=overrated. I’d love to hear those tapes. If you want to sendspace them to me it’d be appreciated.
Zilla: How can I hear “Trapped.” Do you have it.
Ben: Glad I’m not the only one who finds Little Rascal overrated.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:39 am
@potw - I can certainly see how a Dizzee=overrated opinion could be formed. it’s simple really - dude fell the fk off and his newer material, pretty much everything post-Showtime, doesn’t come close to living up to the reputation he built up for himself. there’s no $ in grime, even in the UK, so he’s been trying to “broaden” his appeal and we know how that goes. but yeah his early stuff - his 1st single, “i luv u”, and then that 1st album - that shit was absolutely crazy in 2003, the only dude who was even close was Wiley (the Juan Atkins to Dizzee’s Derrick May). have to agree w/Zilla BTW, I’ll take Wiley over pretty much anyone - he’s the architect of all those crazy sonics, and not a half-bad MC to boot. in any event it’s a biiig stretch to expect hip hop heads to “get” grime, which is more closely related to dancehall and the jungle-UK garage continuum than US rap. it just gets marketed (when that happens, which is rare) here as like “UK mutant rap” b/c that’s easier for Americans to understand.
I’ll get on those trim tapes at some point. btw here’s one of my favorite old dizzee tracks, him just merking this dude Crazy Titch (who, incidentally later got sent up for 30 years for murdering someone else over insulting lyrics) over the “Lean Back beat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVumPLajouM
May 27th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Padraig:
My old group, Crooked Soul, was directly influenced by “Boy in Da Corner.” My producers at the time were infatuated with Wiley, Dizzee, Roll Deep, Ears, Jammer, etc. You can peep Crooked Soul on iTunes.
I know he’s not grime, but do you know if/when Sway is coming out with new shit? IMO he’s the only British MC that is understandable AND can rap his ass off.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Sway’s album was absolutely fantastic, I too am waiting for his new real LP. And I co-sign all that has been said in the comments about dizzee, I hope he’ll come back to a more grimey (can I use that?) sound; I don’t think Math+English was that horrible, it just didn’t make a lot of sense musically; not really too comercial,it just sounds, like, failed music
May 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
There’s a bunch of good songs on Maths+Englishs.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
@zilla - I don’t follow Sway too closely (agree he’s good at rapping but I find his work to be mostly pretty boring) but I think I’ve heard he’s working on a new album, no idea when it might come out. I’ll have to check out Crooked Soul - it doesn’t surprise me that your producers were well onto that stuff b/c between 2002, when Wiley & a few other innovators broke off from UK Garage, and late 2004 or so it was the most advanced music on the planet, at least in the sonics. real soundboy, producers’ music that was - beats veering off into crazy new directions seemingly every week. then the MCs took over (not a terrible thing in and of itself) and it got stale, esp. b/c most grime MC are more about flow than lyrics & once you take away the amazing beats they’re not really saying much. like I said though, check out Trim, he’s an acception to that rule. Durrty Goodz as well - his “Axiom EP” was my one of my favorite releases last year.
@djeff - “failed music” is a perfect description of Maths+English. “unfocused” is another word that comes to mind. I did like the song w/UGK though, even if the lyrics were generic tripe.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
“exception” not “acception”. just cannot write properly today.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Caught the show in Seattle, shit was all gravy except for the blank CDR in my Megamixxx. I was also assaulted by a gang of MySpace MC’s, I couldn’t bring myself to tell “Suntonio Bandanaz” that anyone still replacing s’s with z’s in 2008 already lost.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I don’t know… am I the only one who thinks “Maths + English” is a really, really good record?
And Sway is one of the best rappers working today. Period. “This Is My Demo” is the best debut by a rapper since “Sin-a-Matic.”
May 29th, 2008 at 12:59 am
“I don’t know… am I the only one who thinks “Maths + English” is a really, really good record?”
^nah, it made the top 10 in the UK charts, so tons of British teens are with ya. honestly, besides two or three songs (especially the one featuring Lily Allen’s atrocious warbling) it’s not terrible so much as mediocre. what’s disappointing is that Dizzee is clearly capable of making stuff that’s SO much better, as he’s done in the past.
can’t co-sign on Sway either, but whatever. it doesn’t surprise me that US hip hop heads favor him though, being that he’s essentially an American rapper w/a British accent. the “grime” tag he used to sometimes get was more to do w/being, like a ton of grime MCs & producers, a West African rapper from London, and the fact that most people outside of the UK have no idea what the hell “grime” even means in the first place (see also, for different reasons, the Streets).