迪齐·拉斯克尔

Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by Complex as one of the greatest British rappers of all time. His work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline and R&B. Dizzee Rascal's music is also often credited with bringing UK rap into the mainstream and became the country's first rapper to achieve international recognition.

After signing with independent label XL Recordings in 2002, the rapper released his self-produced debut album Boy in da Corner in 2003. which received widespread critical acclaim and earned him the Mercury Prize in 2003, eventually being certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. It is often regarded as the best British hip hop album of all time. It was followed up with the albums Showtime (2004) and Maths + English (2007), which were also critically praised and were certified gold, both peaking within the top ten of the UK Albums Chart. His next album, Tongue n' Cheek (2009) saw a departure from grime for a more pop-oriented sound. It was certified double platinum and garnered four UK Singles Chart number one singles—"Dance wiv Me", "Bonkers", "Holiday" and "Dirtee Disco".

His fifth album, The Fifth (2013), continued his experimental commercial sound and although it received less favourable reviews than his previous albums, it still peaked in the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. He returned to his grime roots with 2017's Raskit, and has since released E3 AF in 2020 and Don't Take It Personal in 2024. Throughout his career, Dizzee Rascal has worked with a number of notable artists including Arctic Monkeys, Calvin Harris, Florence + The Machine, Robbie Williams, Shakira, Ty Dolla Sign, UGK and will.i.am.

Early life

Dylan Kwabena Mills was born on 18 September 1984 in Forest Gate, London. His Nigerian father died when he was two years old, and the circumstances of his father’s death are still unknown to him: "There’s obviously something that’s gone on that’s been kept from me, but it’s something my mum doesn’t like going into". He was raised on a council estate in Bow, in a single-parent family, by his Ghanaian mother Priscilla, about whom he says, "I had issues as a kid. I was violent and disruptive. The way my mum helped was by finding me a different school every time I got kicked out, always fighting to keep me in the school system."

He attended a series of schools in east London, including Langdon Park School, and was expelled from four of them, including St Paul's Way Community School. Reportedly, it was around this time that a teacher was the first to call him "Rascal". Cagey about exactly what Rascal's youthful "madnesses" entailed, in early interviews he mentioned fighting with teachers, stealing cars, and robbing pizza delivery men. In the fifth school, he was excluded from all classes except music. He also used to attend YATI (Young Actors Theatre Islington). One of his teachers at school was the comedian Shazia Mirza, who taught him science.