Dizzee Rascal - Raskit
Critic Score
Based on 16 reviews
2017 Ratings: #574 / 940
User Score
Based on 91 ratings
2017 Rank: #664
Liked by 6 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
AllMusic

Raskit is by far the most captivating, powerful release from Dizzee Rascal in at least a decade. It certainly won't spawn four number one U.K. pop hits the way his platinum-selling fourth album, Tongue N' Cheek, did, but it's a necessary re-evaluation and re-focus of his talents, and proves that he's far from finished.

80
NME
He hasn’t sounded this vital in years.
80
The Guardian

Under the circumstances, the obvious thing to do would be to make a Boy in Da Corner redux, as if to remind everyone who was there first. Instead, Raskit is a sparse hip-hop album that attempts to re-establish Rascal not as a pioneer of grime but simply as a superior MC to his peers and followers.

80
Mojo

On his sixth outing, grime’s first mainstream MC exposes pretenders to his crown. If 2013’s The Fifth was a rare, guest-heavy misstep that polished off rough edges to brazenly target a transatlantic audience, Raskit junks its predecessor’s egregious schmaltz for marauding bass and spartan trap backings.

80
The Independent
Along with his obvious verbal skills – which have never been better – it’s this kind of easy charm and humour that sets Dizzee apart from his rivals.
80
Q Magazine
The 32-year-old's always-phenomenal flow is now matched by weighty content.
70
Pitchfork

As a platform for Dizzee's flashy lyrical dexterity, Raskit does more than enough to shift the bitter aftertaste of The Fifth. With more of the laser-eyed focus that marked Boy in Da Corner, it could have been a triumph.

70
musicOMH

If you’d pretty much given up on Dizzee Rascal sounding energised and vital again, Raskit should give you some heart. Figures like Stormzy can pick up the baton and carry on making grime crossover, but Dizzee is still just a rascal and doing his own thing.

70
The Line of Best Fit
That a lane can exist for a veteran like Dizzee to return to his roots while the new generation is still innovating solidifies how exciting of a moment this is for grime.
65
Northern Transmissions
For his sixth album, Dizzee Rascal doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. Still a top notch rapper in his ability to unleash verse after verse on his listeners, his style and production does tend to grow a little predictable at times. So do his vocal talents outshine the production or does he too fall into its pitfalls.
60
Clash
Bloated at 16 tracks, it could have been a genuinely strong EP that formed a platform for Dizzee’s return to the sound he helped birth. Alas, whether fairly or not, he appears to disagree with the notion that he should have to take time in reintroducing himself.
60
The Needle Drop

The first half of Raskit is some of the most hard-nosed grime you'll hear all year, as well as some of Dizzee Rascal's strongest material since Boy in da Corner. Unfortunately, things go downhill fast shortly thereafter...

60
The Observer

Raskit – his sixth album – is the veteran MC’s back-to-basics response, some of it predictable but much of it riveting.

50
Crack Magazine

It’s this tiredness that unfortunately defines the spirit of Raskit, a record which initially hits hard but then reveals itself as a somewhat shallow one written at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

BuffaloStaple
72

fuckin hard

CxAylward
65

finally he sounds great again EDIT: kinda

blinkclyro
70

At its core, Raskit is essentially a statement that Dizzee Rascal can still create a competitive grime album and write clever lines, delivering them with conviction. Dizzee Rascal is versatile with fierce tracks such as Space to light and playful tracks such as She Knows What She Wants showing he has the talent that he had in 2003. Although a few tracks fade into the background and the production lacks some creativity compared to his debut, Dizzee Rascal did what he needed to do lyrically and ... read more

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Year End Lists

#19/Q Magazine
/Esquire (UK)
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Added on: June 20, 2017