12. Dizzee RascalBoy In Da Corner
Before the album came out I walked into Rough Trade and someone working there said ‘I think you’ll like this white label’ with a very knowing glint in his eye. It was a test pressing of ‘I Love You’. It was fucking brilliant. It had everything I loved when I first heard Wu-Tang – that rawness – yet it was London through and through. The production was so off the wall, yet poppy with that hook, but also like a big middle finger to the world: anti-social to the max. When I discovered the album it was just so blinding. I personally feel grime has never attained that level for an album again. I think there’s been brilliant grime singles continuously, but for a full album only Wiley has come close.
Around that time, I was fortunate enough to start going to a lot of early grime parties, seeing very early shows by Roll Deep. Very weirdly and brilliantly unexpectedly, The Bug supported Roll Deep for their first ever European show in Amsterdam, when they were starting out, and I remember Wiley coming to check out what I was doing – I was working live with a 24-channel desk on stage and loads of effects and synths and he was checking everything, asking loads of questions.
