Dizzee Rascal- Maths and English

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crackerjack

Well-known member
Are we still playing this? Oh good, here are two.

Bob Marley sang Punky Reggae Party, which namedropped The Damned ----> Capt Sensible of The Damned had a massive hit with Happy Talk ------> Happy Talk was covered by Dizzee rascal


Bob Marley was produced by Lee Perry ----> who also produced The Clash -----> who wrote Red Angel Dragnet, which sampled dialogue from Taxi Driver ----> which starred Jodie Foster -----> who also starred in Bugsy Malone -----> from which Dizzee's So You Wannabe A Gangsta is ripped
 
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Poisonous Dart

Lone Swordsman
Maths & English

It was OK...the songs I liked were really good but I wasn't blown away like with Showtime. Solid release but I just went right back to playing Kano's new mixtape...I write blogs 'til the milkman comes. One.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
got this from the rwd forum - early sales predictions... didnt realise album sales were THIS low these days. i dont know if these are just physical copies or if they include downloads or what but this is low....

LW TW Title Artist Sales
NEW 1 PUZZLE - BIFFY CLYRO 21,041
NEW 2 GOOD GIRL GONE BAD - RIHANNA 20,652
NEW 3 LOVE IT WHEN I FEEL LIKE THIS - TWANG 17,320
1 4 IT WON'T BE SOON BEFORE LONG - MAROON 5 9,778
NEW 5 MEMORY ALMOST FULL - PAUL MCCARTNEY 9,635
NEW 6 MATHS & ENGLISH - DIZZEE RASCAL 9,556
NEW 7 EAT ME DRINK ME - MARILYN MANSON 9,099
4 8 BACK TO BLACK - AMY WINEHOUSE 7,336
NEW 9 REAL GIRL - MUTYA BUENA 6,864
2 10 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT - LINKIN PARK 6,405
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
gumdrops said:
got this from the rwd forum - early sales predictions... didnt realise album sales were THIS low these days. i dont know if these are just physical copies or if they include downloads or what but this is low....

LW TW Title Artist Sales
NEW 1 PUZZLE - BIFFY CLYRO 21,041
NEW 2 GOOD GIRL GONE BAD - RIHANNA 20,652
NEW 3 LOVE IT WHEN I FEEL LIKE THIS - TWANG 17,320
1 4 IT WON'T BE SOON BEFORE LONG - MAROON 5 9,778
NEW 5 MEMORY ALMOST FULL - PAUL MCCARTNEY 9,635
NEW 6 MATHS & ENGLISH - DIZZEE RASCAL 9,556
NEW 7 EAT ME DRINK ME - MARILYN MANSON 9,099
4 8 BACK TO BLACK - AMY WINEHOUSE 7,336
NEW 9 REAL GIRL - MUTYA BUENA 6,864
2 10 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT - LINKIN PARK 6,405
Click to expand...

Are these midweek sales or projections for the whole week? Seems very precise for a prediction...
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
Watching the documentary he's still an incredibly personable, likable, charismatic, intelligent character. But his new album is just so utterly "meh" its difficult to get worked up about. Asides from the first tack its pretty waste- and not really as "pop" as people have been making out (nor as "hip hop", though that doesn't mean of course that its especially grime). Putting "Boy in Da Corner" aside, and listening to it with reference to "Showtime" its deficient in almost every single department, from beats, to production quality (exception- "Sirens" which is a decent track actually) to the obviously nursery rhyme (in a bad way) flow. A "pop" record should sound a bit more exciting than this surely?
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
its a happy album, a feel good album. its just him kinda working in specific idioms/genres per song and offering his own version. nothing groundbreaking or innovative really but it gets by on dizzees personality, emcee 'skills' and grain of voice...
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
gumdrops said:
its a happy album, a feel good album. its just him kinda working in specific idioms/genres per song and offering his own version. nothing groundbreaking or innovative really but it gets by on dizzees personality, emcee 'skills' and grain of voice...
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Seconded
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
Yeah I still like his personality and voice, and I like pop, but in a way its not poppy enough. It also doesn't really hang together-- either with a singular aesthetic or (from a more poptimist viewpoint) as an album that sounds like a singles-collection... not only is the guileless mixture of vulnerability and cynicism which characterised the debut now long gone, but also the rich kaleidescopic production aesthetic and strong hook writing of the follow-up...

Incidentally does anyone know how the sales figures compare to his previous albums?
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
gek-opel said:
Yeah I still like his personality and voice, and I like pop, but in a way its not poppy enough. It also doesn't really hang together-- either with a singular aesthetic or (from a more poptimist viewpoint) as an album that sounds like a singles-collection... not only is the guileless mixture of vulnerability and cynicism which characterised the debut now long gone, but also the rich kaleidescopic production aesthetic and strong hook writing of the follow-up...

Incidentally does anyone know how the sales figures compare to his previous albums?
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It's only 3 days in! First two LPs both went gold (which means 100,000 UK) and I think BITC sold about 200,000 eventually, Showtime a bit less (though this might just be a hunch). Sales are down across the board and particularly bad over here for any kind of black music, so it would be a bit harsh to read too much about quality into the figures.

Btw, how much poppier than Wannabe A Gangsta could you get?
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
Haha, yes but its the WRONG kind of pop perhaps. The horrible, cringe-worthy, mugging to the camera kind... everything militant and spastic about "I Luv U" curdled into something toothless as if re-designed by Jo Whiley. However- I find the attitude which he takes, that there is a whole world out there, which Dizzee wants to explore, to be the correct one, I just wish it could have led to more compelling music... there's no reason that turning outwards leads to a depoliticised playing-safe, is there?
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
gek-opel said:
Watching the documentary he's still an incredibly personable, likable, charismatic, intelligent character. But his new album is just so utterly "meh" its difficult to get worked up about. Asides from the first tack its pretty waste- and not really as "pop" as people have been making out (nor as "hip hop", though that doesn't mean of course that its especially grime). Putting "Boy in Da Corner" aside, and listening to it with reference to "Showtime" its deficient in almost every single department, from beats, to production quality (exception- "Sirens" which is a decent track actually) to the obviously nursery rhyme (in a bad way) flow. A "pop" record should sound a bit more exciting than this surely?
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No, but yeah but no but, and I think we're seeing a great experiment here, "Rules And Regulations" is a great pop album. But it's beside the points, which are affiliation, assimilation and attrition: structures, meaning and culture, the analysis of race cited by Paul Gilroy, and I think all the boys and girls out there are doing a great job, we had Craig David and Miss Dynamite a while back as the first wave, it's just taking longer than it used to.
 
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Ringo P

New member
Logan Sama said:
Wannabe makes me cry inside.
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Obviously, but is there anything on the album you like? I'd really be interested in what you think of 'Where's Da G's', my favourite track on there but then I likes me UGK and that track for them as much as Dizz.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
mistersloane said:
No, but yeah but no but, and I think we're seeing a great experiment here, "Rules And Regulations" is a great pop album. But it's beside the points, which are affiliation, assimilation and attrition: structures, meaning and culture, the analysis of race cited by Paul Gilroy, and I think all the boys and girls out there are doing a great job, we had Craig David and Miss Dynamite a while back as the first wave, it's just taking longer than it used to.
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plz explain how gilroys theory applys to M+E. and how are dynamite and craig david great examples of what to follow? they both ended up leaving their more interesting uniquely black british music behind to pursue middle of the road responses to american hip hop (in dynamites case) and R&B and pop (in craigs).

rules & regs has the potential to be a great pop album but what holds it back is this discouragingly uninterested, slightly bored, painfully competent (and not much more) MCing from all the members. theres none of the inspiration of dizzee on M+E. dizzee sounds energetic and happy and charged with what hes doing, roll deep just sounded like it was another day at the office (and a pretty dull one) on rules and regs.

the best tracks on M+E are actually the ones where dizzee goes all the way pop imo - the one with lilly allen, flex, da feeling, etc. of course id have preferred it if his current idea of pop was more like stand up tall - feel good, but still innovative and unusual - but he totally pulls this unbashedly mainstream direction off. which is more than you can say for most grime or hip hop artists who try and go all pop.
 
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