Dizzee Rascal - E3 AF

“East London to me just sounded honest. It was garage, jungle, and then grime, and pirate radio blaring through windows on my estate.” Dizzee Rascal, one of the UK’s most important MCs, is talking through his seventh studio album as if it’s a time capsule. Titled E3 AF-a nod, he says, to his identity as a West African East Londoner-it is an homage to London, and the Lincoln Estate he grew up in. On it, he returns to the production thrill of the first beats he made on his 2003 debut Boy In Da Corner, only this time it’s his own home studio, built as a reaction to COVID-19. Now, he invites the best in the industry-Kano, Ghetts, Chip, Frisco, and others-to join him as if nothing had changed from the days squeezed together in the small spaces of underground radio stations across London. The result is a frenetically paced, humor-packed offering now characteristic of Dizzee, with grime, jungle, and garage running through it as its life force. “I was like, ‘OK, I'm just going to make a grime album, make beats and bring your favorite MCs together,” he says. “It’s about where I am now, but looking back on where I came from with respect.”