Dizzee Rascal: 'Flex'

Those Mercury judges never get it right. They handed Dizzee their award for his rough around the edges debut Boy In Da Corner in 2003, but failed to see beyond Klaxons' novelty rock and ignored Dizzee's far superior Maths + English this year. The first single 'Sirens' was a blast of full-frontal grime, with some nu-metal guitars shredding in the background. His latest sampler from the LP is 'Flex'. A return to his more traditional grimey roots, it's how UK garage should have sounded in 1999, if it was what the broadsheet press made it out to be. i.e. any good.

'Flex' is based around a basic 2-step beat, a trashy, Specials-esque brass section and some bubbling, watery beeps. As an ode to women flexing their features on the dancefloor, it's hardly the most inspiring track lyrically and we're sure Germaine Greer would have a field day with machismo such as "These girls get my blood pressure rising / There wiggling n jiggling, I'm hidin'". But Dizzee just about get aways with it by doing it with such sheer enthusiasm and making his calls to "dip", "rock", "stop" and "hip" sound like the most fun working out has been since Mr Motivator hung up his multi-coloured leotard.