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Written by Freya Slipper
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 Bouncing out to Jus' A Rascal, Dizzee met the expectant Liquid Room crowd on Thursday and the chants of ‘Dizzee, Dizzee, Dizzee F**ing Rascal’ that became more and more frenzied as his arrival became imminent. When he and his sidekick took to the stage and started "spitting lyrics" to a crowd who were spitting them right back, it was clear he was going to deliver.
The audience weren't your typical fringe-goer, who had shimmied across the theatre and tea drinking divide, but die-hard UK hip-hop and grime fans who had loved him right from Boy In Da Corner. Ever a crowd pleaser, the set delivered songs from all three albums, showing that he wasn’t just playing to those who has come to hear the summer hit, Dance Wiv Me. Instead he delivered his musings on injustice and the struggles of life in energetic performances of Excuse Me Please and Paranoid from his latest album, as well as classics such as Jezebel from his debut.
Despite some of his hard hitting lyrics, the night was definietely a celebration, with Dizzee involving the crowd in an “Oi” competition reminiscent of some kind of beats pantomime, before the tell-tale beat of Fix Up Look sharp sent the crowd wild. As well as this, the whole gig channelled the old skool from the electro beats of the retro support act the Young Fathers (definitely ones to watch), to Dizzee doing a little 80’s KrissKross fancy footwork and starting Sirens with a snippett of House of Pain.
As the night came to the end Dizzee had truly flexed all his musical muscles: from the static sounds of earlier, to the laid-back beats of songs like Dream. Some more chanting from the sweating mass led to the climax of the show and Dance Wiv Me, joined by the RnB crooner, Chrome.
As the logo of his own record label Dirty Stank whirled above him and his number one single buzzed in the crowd's ears, he pushed his cap to the side, with his ‘left eye checking out the scenery’. The scene being an excited and satisfied crowd, privileged to have seen the soon-to-be superstar work his magic.
- Dizzee Rascal
- Liquid Room
- 21st August
- 19:30
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