Dizzee Rascal

When 19-year-old Londoner Dizzee Rascal debuted in 2004 with the excellently unorthodox Boy in da Corner, he seemed like a gangsta from another planet, with a high, wound-up, desperate voice that sometimes sounds like Eazy-E, Shabba Ranks, and Gary Numan, all stuck inside the same body. Boy in da Corner presents a phantasmagoric vision of the future of hip-hop and techno, as Dizzee stays clear of assembly-line beats and backs his Cockney-accented flow and streetwise lyrics with jungle and techno drones. The signature tracks are "I Luv U" and "Wot U On": Dizzee used a PlayStation 2 to make some of the martial beats in the former, and the slutbot vocals, 2D melodies, and hardcore techno pound of "Wot" sound like the inside of a bloody video game. Just as N.W.A once captured the realities of the hood, Dizzee evokes 21st-century street life -- the real, the virtual, and the violent. (PAT BLASHILL)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide