Line-up

Venue

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

Birdwood Ave, 3141, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

www.rbg.vic.gov.au/

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Additional details

Doors open: 18:00

Concert in your area for Hip-Hop, Electronic, and Pop.

Find out more about Hip-Hop, Electronic, and Pop.

Dizzee Rascal biography

Dizzee Rascal – aka Dylan Mills – is a rapper, songwriter, and producer from London, England, UK. His vocal style is highly rhythmic and his music encompasses many genres such as grime, hip-hop, and bassline music.

When Mills was a child he was frequently running into trouble at school, which led to one of his teachers calling him a “rascal”. This name ended up sticking with him and he used it as part of his stage name. Dizzee Rascal always had a fascination with music when he was young and by the age of 16 he produced his first single “I Luv U”. The song was a success for Dizzee Rascal and reached the No. 29 spot on the UK Singles chart. In his early career Dizze Rascal jointly formed the rap group Roll Deep Crew and also began working with the rapper Wiley who he considered his mentor.

In the early 2000’s Dizzee Rascal signed to XL Recordings and in 2003 he released his debut album “Boy in da Corner", which was met with great critical praise by such publications as Pitchfork, NME, and Rolling Stone. The album contained the singles “I Luv U”, “Fix Up, Look Sharp” and “Jus’ a Rascal”, and contained music that closely followed the grime genre, which consisted of beats constructed around synth lines and electronic sounds in a very minimal manner. The album was also a commercial success reaching the No. 23 spot on the UK Albums Chart. Dizzee Rascal also won a Mercury Prize for the album and was the youngest artist at the time to have won the award.

In 2004 Dizzee Rascal released his second studio album “Showtime”, which reached the No. 8 slot on the UK Albums Chart and has also been certified gold by the BPI. Like Dizzee Rascal’s debut album, “Showtime” was critically praised and contained several notable singles like “Stand Up Tall” and “Dream”. Dizzee released his third album “Maths + English” in 2007, which did well both critically and commercially. The album also contained many notable guest artists such as Lilly Allen who appeared on the track “Wanna Be” and Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys who appeared on the track “Temptation”. The year 2007 also saw Dizzee Rascal working with Beck on his remix of the song “Hell Yes”.

For Dizzee Rascal’s fourth studio release “Tongue n’ Cheek”, which he released in 2009, he decided to step away from his grime roots and focus on a more mainstream pop sound. The album featured more catchy upbeat rhythms and more melodic hooks compared to his previous albums, but it also forfeited some of the grit that the previous albums contained. “Tongue n’ Cheek” contained four No. 1 hits, which included “Dance wiv Me”, “Bonkers”, “Holiday”, and “Dirtee Disco”.

Over the years many artists have had the desire to collaborate with Dizzee Rascal. Florence and the Machine has collaborated with Dizzee to create the song “You Got the Dirtee Love”, and the famous popstar Shakira collaborated with Dizzee on her song “Loca”, which peaked at No. 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Dizzee Rascal is known for his energetic live performances and has played at many notable festivals such as the Ilosaarirock Festival and the Evolution Festival. He has also been on tour with many respectable musicians such as The Prodigy and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2012 Dizzee Rascal was given the prestigious privilege to perform at the opening ceremony for the London Olympics. Apart from making music and performing it live, Dizzee Rascal is busy running his record label “Dirtee Stank”, which he founded in 2003.

Live reviews

Dizzee Rascal is the party with his funky and fun hip hop set. Starting out at a positively amazing speed he rocks the small New Zealand venue with his British accented verses. His singing voice is so similar to his speaking voice that is surprises me.

I expected his speaking voice to be much less refined than it is and I find myself pleased when he addresses the crowd. He proud proclaims himself a bassline junkie as he shifts between styles and trades verses with a back-up rapper.

Slowing the music down he dips into R&B territory for a few minutes before dipping back into his garage and grime roots. Encouraging the crowd the scream his name he again slides flawlessly into R&B and proves he is a master of any genre he touches. “Some people think I'm Bonkers” he croons before correcting the assumption; “but I just think I'm free.” “Are you free?

Scream if you are free” he tells the audience and cups his hand to his ear funneling the answers into his brain before explosively embarking in a spirited rendition of Bonkers. As the concert winds to a close he switches multiple times mid song and has scratches interrupting his vocals leading to a climax of styles before screaming for everyone to make some noise. The deafening sounds don't stop until he has left the stage and we can't even remember why were were screaming anymore.

Anonymous

It’s a strange old journey that Example’s been on these past few years; he first emerged into the public consciousness in 2009, when his second record, Won’t Go Quietly, suggested that he was ready to ditch the sound that had carved him out a reputation as one of the underground’s most exciting prospects - the straight-up grime and hip hop crossover that characterised his debut, What We Made - and instead pursue something altogether more commercially viable. This began, with the likes of ‘Dirty Face’, as a blend of house, dance and rap, but alongside it were tracks like ‘Kickstarts’, which had a genuine pop sensibility and hit number one in the charts as a result. That success, in turn, elevated Example to somewhere that nobody - even himself - could have imagined six or seven years ago; arena status, as he toured the UK with Benga last year in support of his fourth album, The Evolution of Man. To those shows, he brought the same basic blueprint that made his many high-profile festival slots a roaring success; a live band, a laser-heavy light show, and the utilisation of every possible opportunity to have a surely-exhausted crowd jumping. He’s done all of this at the expense of a fair bit of credibility, but really, the swagger with which he’s pulled off his reinvention is to be commended.

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