Dizzee Rascal - Sirens
[XL Recordings]

Sirens is not the forward-thinking, next generation of hip hop sound you'd be hoping for from a Dizzee Rascal comeback record. But in terms of a crossover single, the track is massive in every sense of the word.

Taking cues from the greats of the late 80's who first toyed with mashing up hip hop with rock like Public Enemy and Run DMC, Sirens starts with a Straight Outta Compton (NWA) feel from the crashing thunderous drums and sounds of the police, before Dizzee's narrative style lyrics recall an incident relating to his street life, growing up in inner-city London.

Then come the ground-shaking, earthquake sized metal riffs that look to the influence of the aforementioned names but in a modern day way - think Korn guitars this time, instead of Aerosmith! By fusing the two genres, Dizzee is cleverly crossing paths with two different types of music lover and broadening his potential fanbase.

It's not just grime and hip hop fans that will dig the track and as such, we may be seeing Rascal reaching the huge commercial success he so desires.