Photos: Matt Collins  crushimages

Dizzee Rascal took over the stage at the Carling the split second he walked on, the crowd had risen from packed with the 1^st excellent band the Pistalos through 2 other rap acts and then rammed and steaming with youthful blinged up backward cap wearing punters, baying for the adrenalin pulse created by this rap star. They were not let down and chanted and shouted all through the high speed, high energy well performed gig. Dizzee was tearing up all the rule books and setting the music world alight with his raw talent. His thought-provoking lyrics, distinctively piercing and poignant delivery, and original production have made him one of the hottest new stars of the urban scene, and yet one impossible to pigeonhole.

Since then, Dizzee has gone from strength to strength, with a string of live PA's (including support slots with Justin Timberlake, and a guest appearance on stage with N.E.R.D), receiving an innovation award at the recent NME Awards, and building his reputation Stateside. His latest release Maths & English has had much critical adulation.

London rapper/producer Dizzee Rascal went from upstart Boy in da Corner to Showtime sensation over the course of his first two albums, carrying the standard for the bellicose, breakbeat-based U.K. grime scene. Now, on new single "Sirens," he promises to "take it back to that old-school, storytelling shit." Slower and more predictable than its predecessors, Maths & English may have you waiting for the schoolbell to ring.

But not before a few compelling lessons. With metallic distortion, "Sirens" breathlessly recounts a panicked flight from the police. "Pussy'ole" goes older school, reshaping the Lyn Collins sample behind Rob Base's 1988 "It Takes Two" into a sharp, fast-paced dis. Dizzee's production palette is broader, too, as on knives-as-percussion opener "World Outside," perhaps his best-sounding track to date.