The best thing to come out of Bow since the train out of Bow, it's nonetheless bewildering that Dizzee Rascal now finds himself on the verge of national treasure status. Rewind to 2002 when 17-year old plain Dylan Mills wrote I Luv U, his take-no-prisoners update on the age-old battle of the sexes ("it's a shame you got had by the whores!"), set against a squelching bass and chattering drums. It sounded like nothing else on earth, and shone a light on east London's emerging grime scene at a time when the rest of the country thought grime was probably a job best left for Mr Muscle.
Lionised by the critics - subsequent album Boy in Da Corner won the Mercury prize in 2003 - Dizzee still looked like an awkward proposition for the mainstream. But four albums in, the picture finally looks very different, thanks to the unashamedly commercial smashes that have been last year's Dance Wiv Me and the recent Bonkers. These find their place here, alongside new single Holiday, and with Tiesto and Armand van Helden among the conga line of producers spraying his sound in Ambre Solaire, the album feels like nothing other than the suncreamed sound of Ibiza. The rhymes could be adopted by any 18-30 rep - "skinny dipping" with "willy stinging", "bollocks" with "trollops", "breasts are juicy" with "Kriss Akabusi".
It unquestionably adds up to a pop record sharp enough to be the bratty but irresistible younger brother of Lily Allen's It's Not Me, It's You, but it also begs a question - now that Dizzee's gone pop who will fill his role as the quick-witted emblem of urban youth? The first time he claimed he was "jus' a rascal" it was ironic; this time he means it. Does the pre-emptively titled Tongue 'n' Cheek mean the most successful black rapper in the UK has finally sold his soul to the devil or, worse, Calvin Harris?
Downbeat track Leisure leaves a door open if the new direction doesn't work out. It's a complex, and at times confused, attack on the hip-hop lifestyle in which Dizzee makes a plea for others to follow in his footsteps by leaving gang culture behind.
Problem is, it just sounds a little drab compared to I Luv U, which was so militant and self-assured it knocked you backwards.
Truth is, Mr Rascal's performance on Newsnight after Barack Obama's election last year might have been shaky, but heaven forbid the day they haul Tinchy Stryder in front of Paxman to announce that the children are the future. And more to the point, who's to say that right now - for whatever reasons - the escapism that Dizzee offers here isn't exactly what the kids want?
