Boy in da Corner
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''Boy in da Corner'' is the debut studio album by English rapper and producer
Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. Dizze ...
. It was first released on 21 July 2003 by
XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six album ...
in the United Kingdom before being released the following year in the United States. A widespread critical success, ''Boy in da Corner'' became one of the most acclaimed records of 2003 and went on to win the
Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...
for best album from the UK and Ireland. It also peaked at number 23 on the British albums chart and sold over 250,000 copies worldwide by 2004. With the album's success, Dizzee Rascal gave mainstream exposure to
grime music Grime is a genre of electronic music that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage, and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated brea ...
while becoming the UK's first internationally recognised rap star.


Background

Around the age of 14, Dizzee Rascal became an amateur
drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...
DJ, also rapping over tracks as customary in sound system culture, and making occasional appearances on local
pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...
stations. Two years on, aged 16, he self-produced his first single, " I Luv U", which was included on his debut. The same year, Rascal signed a solo deal with the
record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
XL.


Critical reception

''Boy in da Corner'' received widespread acclaim from critics. At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the album received an aggregate score of 92 out of 100, based on 28 reviews. ''
NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' called it "one of the most assured debut albums of the last five years". ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' stated that, "Combining U.K. garage beats and a distinctly British sensibility, Rascal spits out phrases with the energy and finesse of a championship boxer". ''Rolling Stone'' wrote, "If you want a vision of the future of hip-hop and techno, get this record".
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
called it "Startling, tirelessly powerful, and full of unlimited dimensions, nothing could truly weigh down this debut". ''
Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
''s Scott Plagenhoef stated, "Dizzee's despairing wail, focused anger, and cutting sonics places him on the front lines in the battle against a stultifying Britain, just as
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
,
Johnny Rotten John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and agai ...
, and
Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then ...
have been in the past". In ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'',
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
wrote that "His adolescent gulps and yowls are street-Brit with a Jamaican liquidity, as lean, eccentric, and arresting as the beats." Fellow ''Village Voice'' critic Jeff Chang stated, "When Dizzee thinks very deeply—worrying about growing up, about those around him who won't grow up, about dying before he grows up—he sounds like, what else can we call it, the real thing". ''
Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...
'' stated, "Most of Boy in Da Corner's most compelling moments come from this uneasy interaction between irrational youth and ultra-rational mechanized society".
Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis ( el, Αλέξης Πετρίδης; born 13 September 1971) is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for the UK newspaper ''The Guardian'', as well as a regular contributor to the magazine '' GQ''. In addition to his mus ...
from ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' called Dizzee "the most original and exciting artist to emerge from dance music in a decade". According to
Acclaimed Music Acclaimed Music is a website created by Henrik Franzon, a statistician from Stockholm, Sweden in September 2001. Franzon has statistically aggregated hundreds of published lists that rank songs and albums into aggregated rankings by year, deca ...
, ''Boy in da Corner'' was the third most ranked record on critics' year-end lists of the year's best albums and eventually the 369th most ranked on subsequent all-time lists. It won Dizzee Rascal the 2003
Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...
, an annual music award for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland, making him the second rapper to win the award. In 2009, it was voted the sixth greatest album of all time by
MTV Base MTV Base was a British pay television music channel from Paramount Networks UK & Australia that focused primarily on hip hop, R&B, grime, garage, reggae, funk, soul and dance music. It was launched as part of MTV's digital boutique of music cha ...
. The album was included in the book ''
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
''. According to B.J. Steiner from ''
Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
'', "''Boy in Da Corner'' brought grime—an influential subgenre of hip-hop birthed from the endless creativity of a bunch of kids from the United Kingdom—to the rest of the world and made a young Dizzee Rascal, his country's first international rap superstar."


Commercial performance

''Boy in da Corner'' was released on 21 July 2003 in the United Kingdom by
XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six album ...
and 20 January 2004 in the United States by
Matador Records Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts. History Matador was created in 1989 by Chris Lombardi in his New York City apart ...
. It reached number twenty-three on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
and was
certified Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
gold by the
British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...
(BPI), having shipped 100,000 copies there. By 2004, it had sold over 250,000 copies worldwide, and over 58,000 copies in the US by 2007. The album was certified Platinum (300,000 copies) in July 2018, 15 years after its release, making it Dizzee's second Platinum selling album after ''Tongue n' Cheek''.


Legacy

In 2016, Dizzee Rascal performed ''Boy in da Corner'' in full for the first time first in New York and then in east London at the Copper Box Arena. Contemporary critics praised the album's continuing influence on grime and ageless sound. In late 2016, a bootleg fan mixtape of rare recordings from the Boy in Da Corner era called ''Left in da Corner'' was released.


Track listing

All tracks were produced by Dizzee Rascal, except where noted. Notes * "Stop Dat" features background vocals by Armour of N.A.S.T.Y. Crew * "I Luv U" features additional vocals by Jeanine Jacques * "Wot U On?" features additional vocals by Caramel * "Seems 2 Be" features additional vocals by Claire Cottrell Sample credits * "Fix Up, Look Sharp" includes a sample of " The Big Beat", performed by
Billy Squier William Haislip Squier (, born May 12, 1950) is an American rock musician and singer who had a string of arena rock and crossover hits in the early 1980s. His best-known songs include "The Stroke", "Lonely Is the Night", "My Kinda Lover", "In t ...
.


Personnel

The album's credits are adapted from
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
. * Armour – background vocals * Gareth Bayliss – sleeve design assistant * Caramel – vocals *
Dean Chalkley Dean Chalkley (born 2 April 1968) is a British photographer from Southend-on-Sea. Early life Dean Chakley's first years were spent on a farm in Essex where his parents were labourers. At the age of seven the family moved to Southend-on-Sea wh ...
– sleeve photo * Chubby Dread – producer * Claire Cottrell – vocals * Nick Detnon – A&R * Ben Drury – cover design, logo design * God's Gift – performer * Nick Huggett – artist coordination * Dylan Mills – composer * Tesmond Rowe – composer * Vanguard Vardoen – composer *
Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations * Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town *Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People * Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer * Wiley Mill ...
– performer


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


References


External links

*
Boy in da Corner
' at
Acclaimed Music Acclaimed Music is a website created by Henrik Franzon, a statistician from Stockholm, Sweden in September 2001. Franzon has statistically aggregated hundreds of published lists that rank songs and albums into aggregated rankings by year, deca ...
(list of accolades) * {{Authority control 2003 debut albums Dizzee Rascal albums Mercury Prize-winning albums XL Recordings albums