Cover art: dude wagging a blinged finger saying ‘bring it!’ in front of a radioactive colour scheme. Album title: Back to Bizznizz. Your local Snoop translator tells us we are not muckin’ around here.
By the time the intro track (including an evil mechanical voice and a crowd chanting “bizzle” repeatedly) is over it should be clear what’s in store. Britain’s lord of the ghetto-rap underground takes grime, probably black music’s most progressive genre over the last few years, loads it into an M16 and fires it in a wide spray.
This is high energy stuff, often poppier and more accessible than Dizzee and co. Production, courtesy of Dexplicit, is raw and effective; fusing a variety of styles. Interestingly, adding bonus comedic value, rather than The Streets much loved ‘man of the people’ routine, Bizzle (although he says he doesn’t mind ‘Mr. B’) takes a more Americanised, larger than life approach. Of course, the tongue lashings are still dished out in a way that only a man east of the Atlantic could. How does something so seemingly basic and ill-conceived turn out so entertaining? Amazing.