London's Dizzee Rascal (Dylan Mills), a member of the "Roll Deep Crew", was only 19 when he promoted a new genre ("grime"), an abrasive version of garage, with the single I Luv U and the album Boy in Da Corner (2003). The lyrics were far less important than the atmosphere created by the confused and noisy arrangements, influenced by Goldie's brainy drum'n'bass and by Tricky's haunted trip-hop. Mills begins by venting his desperation in the obsessively percussive Sittin' Here and then turns aggressive and neurotic in the grotesquely syncopated Stop Dat. Then he samples a gentle female voice, gathers 8-bit synth farting and enlists a punkish female rapper for the bodacious I Luv U. Fix Up Look Sharp (with a booming beat by Billy Squier) even exhibits a bizarre bombast that evokes a rapping version of Pere Ubu's David Thomas and that is coupled with a soul shouter; and Jus' A Rascal complements his lyrical bravado with an operatic choir. The arrangements are occasionally disorienting (the dissonant carillon of Brand New Day) but mostly we are hypnotized by naked chronicles of street life like Jezebel, and songs like Hold Ya Mouf' and Seems 2 Be are the essence of grime. The album ends with the melancholy and hopeful Do It! ("I’ll survive because it’s what I do best"). This is the album that defined the grime genre for years to come.

Not as catchy as the debut, Showtime (XL, 2004) has to rely on energetic delivery, dramatic dexterity and creative percussive patterns. It works only occasionally (Stand Up Tall, Hype Talk) and only marginally. Elsewhere he resorts to the old poppier structures (Dreams) with equally uneven results.

Maths + English (2007) is an uneven sprawling collection of ideas. The problem with rappers is that they are often as interesting as Hollywood stars at a talk show. Hence Rascal's "memorable" line "There's a world outside of the ghetto and I want you to see it". The dumbest movie star could not have put it more profoundly. If one removes the idiotic lyrics and the half-baked "experiments", Rascal's third album simply delivers a handful of radio-friendly dance songs and a lot of filler.

Giving up on artistic ambition, Tongue N' Cheek (2009) and The Fifth (2013) delivered only the dance goods.

He returned to grime on Raskit (2017) and E3 AF (2020). Don't Take It Personal (2024) is an eclectic poly-stylistic album.