Showtime
From its title track—a swaggeringly confident, JAY Z-worthy intro—this second record finds Camberwell’s finest deftly shouldering mainstream expectations and a post-fame existence. Sprinkled with pointed references to an attempt on his life in Ayia Napa, *Showtime* finds room for rival-crushing road tracks (“Hype Talk,” “Face”), elastic-tongued workouts (“Everywhere”), and chart-minded curveballs (“Dream”). Then there’s “Stand Up Tall”—an unstoppable anthem replete with glitchy 8-bit production and frenetic, showstopping rhymes.
On the heels of last year's groundbreaking debut and his subsequent signing to Matador, the king of UK garage issues his wildly anticipated follow-up.
There are a couple possibly distressing things about Dizzee Rascal's second album, released almost exactly a year after his breakthrough debut.
Dizzee has learned how to gene-splice his uniquely atonal Manchester sound with a variety of popular beat styles.