Hip-hop

Straight from the bowels of an East London council estate (England’s projects/public housing), Dizzee Rascal’s record output belies his age – a fresh-faced 22, he’s now three albums deep with his newest release, Maths and English. Along with Kano he has come to symbolize, and even embody grime for anybody outside of England. Whether that’s fair or not is a different question altogether – the question at hand here, of course, is whether his new album lives up to the rather lofty heights set by its predecessors. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite hit those heady peaks, for his branching out has left a more uneven album in its wake, one that both highlights his strengths and weaknesses.