The EDGE caught up with Dizzee before his set at Beach Break. . .

What was it like working with Calvin and Chrome?

None of the three of us were in the studio at the same time. We did everything through email because Calvin lives in Scotland. The only person i worked with in the studio was Kage who was involved in the writing and everything. Me and Calvin never saw each other once apart from when we made the video and then afterwards.

You’ve worked with some great artists including Lily Allen, The Arctic Monkeys, Fat Boy Slim and obviously Calvin Harris and Chrome. Who would you most like to collaborate with on future projects?

I would love to do something with Timbaland; he’s always been my favourite. Even from back in the day. He’s part of the reason why I made beats in the first place. Or Andre 3000 (Outkast), that would be good and Amy Winehouse, that would be interesting.

Can you tell us a bit more about the new album?

The new album is called Tongue N Cheek. It’s basically an album you could put on to have a party to. It’s all pretty up tempo, quite happy, it’s got dance elements, hip hop elements, bit of reggae, just all chucked in there.

Could you be considered a grime artist?

I’m an artist, that whole grime thing is a journalist thing. The music i was making back in the day was really grimey or really edgy but i never personally had no name for it. I was coming up from doing raves and the pirate radio scene. It was grimey but i had the same principal then as I have now, just trying to keep people moving, dancing and thinking. Obviously i’ve had a record deal (although i’m out of it now) I’m on the TV and different people are hearing my music. I do festivals, I do shit all around the world so I’m reaching different audiences and naturally I’m trying to cater for them. In that sense I wouldn’t be a grime artist because I crossed over ages ago. It’s made its mark and you could say I was one of the people that helped do that.

Why don’t you think it went mainstream?

The main concern of the MCs and grime artist isn’t to be commercial. They’re making music for pirate radio, raves and their community. It’s not until people go around doing the bigger raves, start being exposed to those kinds of people and journalists start coming around putting them in magazines. That’s when they start realising.

So is that what inspired you to start your label Dirtee Stank Records?

Originally it was just putting out records when i was on the pirate scene. My big single ‘I Luv You’ which got put out by XL Records actually came out on Dirtee Stank first. Now the purpose of Dirtee Stank is to put out other artists music, ie. artists from the grime scene or the pirate radio scene. People who might not normally get the opportunity because the labels don’t quite know how to work with them.

So you’ve got your own label but are you still signed to XL?

No, that was the big thing about ‘Dance Wiv Me’ going number one. I’d completed my three album deal. ‘Dance Wiv Me’ was released on Dirtee Stank. It was the first truly independent Number 1 in England for 14 years.

What are the main differences between a label such as Dirtee Stank and XL?

There are less people for a start so you are more likely to get concentrated on. The only thing is you have got a lot more on your shoulders because you have got loads of other things to be thinking about but to be fair a lot of the things you have to think about we were doing at XL anyway.

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