Send "Lethal Bizzle " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Yahoo |
 In 2002, Lethal Bizzle and his MC buddies Ozzie B and Neeko quick-tongued their way to number seven in the UK charts as the More Fire Crew with the track "Oi!" They were at the forefront of a soon-to-explode grime scene that would see Lady Sovereign appear on the Late Show with David Letterman, hear Wiley change everything with "Wearing My Rolex" and watch Dizzee Rascal get propelled from an unexpected Mercury Music Prize to international stardom.Since then, upstarts like Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder have jumped on grime and turned it into something kids who like Taio Cruz will buy. The genre's changed and Bizzle, solo since 2005, has a question to answer: mega-fame or credibility? As one of the scene's bigger personalities he's already had a stint as a Guardian columnist and been embroiled in a public beef with David Cameron, and his third record, "Go Hard", suggests his answer to the question is: both, please. Accordingly, he's recruited masters-of-their-trade Mark Ronson and Gallows to help him construct two shameless assaults on the Top 40. Ronson's is "Lost My Mind" and (obviously) provides "Go Hard" with its most radio-friendly moment thanks to a repetitive violin riff and appealing jitter-bounce beat. However, "Rockstar", with Frank Carter and co, is a dazzling lowlight. On top of the punk act's basic-at-best riffing, Bizzle insists he's not a hip-hop or grime star at all but "a motherf**king rock star", even though it's the only song he's ever done featuring a guitar. The point, we suppose, is that he's a crossover artist, but it gets lost in the ridiculousness of it all. Elsewhere, Bizzle's not shy about harking back to the days when being a yoof pumped with lyrical savagery and the aggression of a Staffordshire bull terrier was the way to get places. The fizzing electro-grime bullets "Can You See Me" and "Crazy Nightmare" are thrilling, and he gives the (defunct since 2005) More Fire Crew props on a number of occasions, most explicitly on the soulful and pacey "Push It". The problem is, "Go Hard"'s constantly unsure if it wants to top the charts of its own accord, dominate Radio 1 with big-name collaborations or avoid getting friendly with the mainstream at all, and so flits between the three hoping no one will notice....full text |
| Nme |
| You do wonder if Bizzle ever regrets letting himself be adopted so completely as the indie nation’s mascot rapper. Yes, he completely tore apart the rammed-up tents at this year’s Reading and Leeds (the unfortunate bizznizz at Download two years ago thankfully seems a one-off). But all that sidling up to Doherty made him look a bit of a douche within his own scene, with the grime hardcore looking to the likes of P Money, Young Spray and Ice Kid for the ‘real shit’. Meanwhile, Dizzee’s late bloom and the coronation of Tinchy Stryder have proven that the UK can mine bona fide urban superstars. Bizzle might have expected to be up there with them but he’s ended up looking like something of a daft uncle. ‘Go Hard’ sees him consolidate his position on the dancefloor, but there’s nothing resembling the fingerprints of Calvin Harris here – mostly it’s a down and dirty return to the scene that birthed him. Uneven it may be, but when his goofy rhymes catch sparks against a noxious mix of grime, electro and funky house it’s dazzling. He’s apparently cured of the collaborative bumrush; there’s just two notorious hook-ups here, the thunderous Gallows-powered ‘Rockstar’ and the fromage-heavy Mark Ronson jam ‘Lost My Mind’....full text |
| Musicomh |
| Lethal Bizzle is back with a follow-up to Back To Bizznizz, but just how successful it turns it out to be is open to question. The title track reached the dizzying heights of Number 79 back in June. That lowly chart position was something of a surprise, featuring as it did Donaeo, to whose hit Party Hard it bears a more than passing resemblance. Yet MOBO winner Bizzle has, since his debut at least, not stuck too close to grime. On his last album he duetted with Kate Nash, while this time he's roped in Mark Ronson for some characteristic brassy horn play on Lost My Mind. Rockstar is another track that makes the case for wider audience recognition with help from - of all people - Gallows. It's unlikely to make him more popular with anyone who attended Download 2008, however. Second single Going Out Tonight, Crazy Nightmare and the dancefloor filler So Addictive are the highlights. Skullz On My Hoodie is also worth a listen, if only for some intriguing synths and Bizzle claiming to be, all in one song, Barack Obama and a Power Ranger. And it's difficult to go wrong with Salt-n-Pepa's Push It. But the last three standard tracks lose the plot, and his version of House Of Pain's classic Jump Around should be taken outside and shot. Luckily it's only available on the download. Throw in some dreadful slowed-down vocals that recur throughout the album, and you end up with something to file under 'what might have been'. A look at Dizzee Rascal's handling of Dirtee Cash flags up how to cover a classic....full text |
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