At first, the jingly-jangly almost Asian sounding, but not quite, background music is obtrusive and irritating, but it grows on you. One of the most powerful songs on the album. All in all, I Luv U is characterized by a thudding synth bassline and off-kilter rhythms. What follows is a back and forth hip-hop duet, dominated by Mills' rhymes, but featuring a strong pseudo-anonymous (I couldn't find info on who she is) female voice.
This song starts off with a sampled female voice prattling those special words off on a loop. Whether that is a good thing or not, well. It is quite difficult to understand, at the very least, 70% of the lyrics in this song are unintelligible. Looking back at my own introduction for this writeup, I now believe I will have to contradict myself. It just doesn't seem digestable, i.e., it is an aural assault. I try to pull myself together, tell myself fix upĪnd I keep myself from bawling but my eyes they erupt I’m sitting here depressed and I don’t know why I’m just sitting here, I aint saying much I feel to cry I keep getting vex, till I think what’s the worth? Mills keeps his delivery calm and reserved on this track, but his lyrics are still raw and impressive: It begins with a background track that can only be described as stacatto ambience with a touch of reverb. Relative to most of the material on Boy in Da Corner, this song is pretty chilled out.
In addition, Boy in Da Corner won the coveted Mercury Music Prize in 2003. Check out Jangie's writeup here for more on Mills' influences.
While those who don't listen to much rap music might have trouble understanding him, most people listening to the album will just have difficulty with some unfamiliar slang terms. Some people think his lyrics are nearly incomprehensible, I disagree. That is, his rhymes, are just as textually interesting as the warped drum beats and synthesizers keeping time in the background. While some audiophiles might classify it as grime, I prefer to think of it as an eccentric blend of drum 'n bass electronica and East Coast hip-hop diffused through a Cockney-slang filter. Boy in Da Corner LP/CD (XL, 2003 XL/Matador with extra track, 2004)ĭebut Album of London-based rapper Dylan Mills aka Dizzee Rascal.