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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Boy In Da Corner
Universal acclaim
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 126 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Matador / XL
Release Date: 20 January 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rap, Electronic
Summary
This is the debut disc for the 18-year-old London-based rapper (born Dylan Mills), who has been heralded by (among others) Uncut magazine as "good as any MC currently active on Earth."
Also By This Artist: Maths + English Showtime Tongue N' Cheek
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
PopMatters
It is an album that can be loved as both an achievement and an experience, a document and a revelation; it is simultaneously a problem to be solved and a spectacle to simply witness.
Read Full Review >Junkmedia
Corner's gutter low ends, amphetamine drum programming, and Dizzee's cockney slang-spitting place this record among rap's paradigmatic moments.
Read Full Review >Uncut
The best rapper this country's ever produced, period.... Next to Dizzee Rascal everybody looks pale, uninteresting and irrelevant. [Sep 2003, p.98]
Mojo
Brilliantly original. [Aug 2003, p.106]
The Guardian
The most original and exciting artist to emerge from dance music in a decade.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
Most of Boy in Da Corner's most compelling moments come from this uneasy interaction between irrational youth and ultra-rational mechanized society.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Dizzee's despairing wail, focused anger, and cutting sonics places him on the front lines in the battle against a stultifying Britain, just as Pete Townshend, Johnny Rotten, and Morrissey have been in the past.
Read Full Review >Spin
The flow is straight-up alien: chilled-out and frantic at the same time, slightly breathless. [Feb 2004, p.95]
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
His adolescent gulps and yowls are street-Brit with a Jamaican liquidity, as lean, eccentric, and arresting as the beats.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express (NME)
One of the most assured debut albums of the last five years.
Read Full Review >Splendid
If Boy In Da Corner marks the beginning of distinctly British hip-hop, the genre's standards are already impressively high.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Boy in da Corner defies genre in a defiant manner, refusing to be defined, refusing, even, to be dismissed.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
It all makes for a bleak spread, but Rascal rises up as a singular musical presence too brimming and perceptive to let the coarse world around him pass by untouched.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Startling, tirelessly powerful, and full of unlimited dimensions.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
When Dizzee thinks very deeply--worrying about growing up, about those around him who won't grow up, about dying before he grows up--he sounds like, what else can we call it, the real thing.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
A dance syncretism made of menacing beats skittering from dark dancehall to mashed-up jungle, super-warped bass frequencies, stark anti-hooks, and a voice that is the most authentic to emerge in years. [18 Jan 2004]
ShakingThrough.net
One of the most refreshing hip-hop records in quite some time.
Read Full Review >CultureDose.net
On a level of pure listening enjoyment, Boy In Da Corner isn't quite an Original Pirate Material; but it does succeed in establishing that Dizzee Rascal deserves a place right at the forefront of the UK Urban movement.
Read Full Review >Blender
His hard-edged, dance-inflected debut makes East London sound like the new Dirty South. [Jan 2004, p.108]
Launch.com
He hasn’t made a great album, but even Tupac never managed that; the bombed-out landscape of Boy In Da Corner burns instead with all the anger, confusion and messed-up desperation of youth.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
If you want a vision of the future of hip-hop and techno, get this record.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
Delivering his lyrics in a breathless barrage, 'Boy In Da Corner' packs the energy flash of London MCing into its grooves and for that alone it deserves attention.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
One of the strangest, bumpiest musical journeys we're likely to experience on record this year. [16 Jan 2004, p.68]
Playlouder
Not much here is too likely to blow up on the airwaves... it's too dirty, too ugly, too hard, and too Real.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
[A] strikingly stark and innovative debut. [Sep 2003, p.102]
Urb
Dizzee's production style is impressive.... His flow is urgent and coherent. [Mar 2004, p.109]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 126 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
AK Ash gave it a6:
For this album to rated higher then classics from Nas, 50 Cent ( I dont want to even mention other names). I cant belive that true hip hop fans would even rate him in the same categroy . Lyrics are very average and his voice makes us (uk) sound like are voices aren't broken. Not a Hater just a Truth Teller.
Ollie H gave it a10:
Simply the best hip-hop (or whatever you want to call it) album I've ever heard. Dizzee's production is on par with that of El-p or Madlip (actually, he's way better than Madlib) and his rhymes are delivered with the grit and honesty. This isn't rap for the casual listener, this is dense, intelligent, and sincere hip hop.
Frank D gave it a9:
This album really kicks ass ! It´s one of the most original rap albums of all time. Don´t miss it !!!
Ir relevant gave it a7:
Michael C--I'm not disputing the merits of this album, necessarily, but your including "Eric B." on a list of rap giants is just plain ignorant, since Eric B. did not rap. Rakim rapped. But thanks for playing. Maybe you should review rap albums in the context of rap music only when you have some clue as to what you're talking about.
brian L gave it a9:
Close to perfection, starts to slack off slightly after Fix Up, Look Sharp, but picks up right again at Hold Ya Mouf. this is probably the best connection into urban UK music most people can get. good thing he's talented.
Barry P gave it a10:
True they do sound stupid ash, probably some wannabe badboys or chavs. But there is no doubt this album is fuckin' wicked! Way better than his others, and better than any album Kano has released. It's rare to find so many songs on an album that i really like, there's about 8-9 out of 16 that i could listen to on loop one after the other. 'sikkkkkkkkkkkkkkk album bruv'.
ash p gave it a0:
'o all you guys chattin bout hip hop or garage and tryin to rate it by those standards better shh hut yuh muh', 'sikkkkkkkk album bruv 'sittin here' is a bad tune big up all my blazers!!!' 'standard dis album is big out here. no long ting straight up and down big' - to quote a few, do you know how stupid you sound seriously!
