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Boy In Da Corner

EMAILPRINTby Dizzee Rascal

Dizzee Rascal reviews
92
9.0 User Score:

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."

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...

100

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.

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100

Junkmedia

Corner's gutter low ends, amphetamine drum programming, and Dizzee's cockney slang-spitting place this record among rap's paradigmatic moments.

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100

Uncut

The best rapper this country's ever produced, period.... Next to Dizzee Rascal everybody looks pale, uninteresting and irrelevant. [Sep 2003, p.98]

100

Mojo

Brilliantly original. [Aug 2003, p.106]

100

The Guardian

The most original and exciting artist to emerge from dance music in a decade.

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96

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.

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94

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.

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91

Spin

The flow is straight-up alien: chilled-out and frantic at the same time, slightly breathless. [Feb 2004, p.95]

91

Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

His adolescent gulps and yowls are street-Brit with a Jamaican liquidity, as lean, eccentric, and arresting as the beats.

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91

E! Online

It's as gripping as N.W.A.'s groundbreaking Straight Outta Compton.

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90

New Musical Express (NME)

One of the most assured debut albums of the last five years.

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90

Splendid

If Boy In Da Corner marks the beginning of distinctly British hip-hop, the genre's standards are already impressively high.

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90

Neumu.net

Boy in da Corner defies genre in a defiant manner, refusing to be defined, refusing, even, to be dismissed.

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90

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.

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90

All Music Guide

Startling, tirelessly powerful, and full of unlimited dimensions.

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90

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.

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88

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]

84

ShakingThrough.net

One of the most refreshing hip-hop records in quite some time.

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80

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.

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80

Blender

His hard-edged, dance-inflected debut makes East London sound like the new Dirty South. [Jan 2004, p.108]

80

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.

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80

Rolling Stone

If you want a vision of the future of hip-hop and techno, get this record.

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80

Billboard

Adventurous listeners are in for a treat.

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80

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.

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75

Entertainment Weekly

One of the strangest, bumpiest musical journeys we're likely to experience on record this year. [16 Jan 2004, p.68]

70

Playlouder

Not much here is too likely to blow up on the airwaves... it's too dirty, too ugly, too hard, and too Real.

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70

Q Magazine

[A] strikingly stark and innovative debut. [Sep 2003, p.102]

70

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!

Read more user comments >

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