Dizzee Rascal: E3 AF review – direct from his magpie soul

Artistic credibility is like trust – hard-won, easily squandered. Dizzee Rascal – for at least eight years Britain’s best rapper – shredded his credibility with pint-spilling pop hits Holiday and Dirtee Disco. He vaporised it completely during that terrifyingly bad 2010 World Cup song Shout. Seeing him galumphing around with James Corden was as mortifying as seeing your dad fastening a mask to his neckbeard at a David Icke gig.

Fortunately, Dizzee pulled out of that tailspin with 2017’s bracingly claustrophobic, introspective Raskit album. E3 AF (a nod to his old postcode and his African roots) continues the good work and adds decent features from peers Kano and Chip. The beats come direct from Rascal’s magpie soul, stirring up elements of grime, drill, trap, garage and dubstep. So even if there’s lazy, witless dance-pop such as Body Loose, you’ll be glad to hear that it’s bookended by the lacerating You Don’t Know and LLLL. Grime’s true godfather unrolls that ageless, perpetual screwface flow from classics Bluku! Bluku! and Bonkers, and you’ll forgive him anything. It feels like there’s one last great album in him, even if this isn’t quite it.