"Some people think I'm bonkers..."

Rudeboy, don’t watch that
Cause if it’s arms-house, I’ll rock that
And if it’s on top, you know I got that
Come through with a big baseball bat

Like blood, don’t make me get old-school
Blood, don’t make me get old-school
Blood, don’t make me get old-school
Blood, don’t make me get old-school

I don't think there's many people that would label these lyrics as typical listening of middle-class white kids. But we live in a cosmopolitan musical world these days where Jay-Z can headline the biggest music festival in the country, and so I was definitely not expecting the expressions I got from my friends when I put the Dizze Rascal track "Pussyole" on.

Maybe a few years back, when we used to make fun of Lethal Bizzle's "Pow", it would be understandable. Most commercial hip-hop, even relatively restrained british grime, is mindless boasting over stolen samples, and for a long time I assumed that Dizzee Rascal was similar.

What turned me onto him initially was that string of commercial hits he's had over the last year - Bonkers, Holiday et al. Shallow fun? Well, yes. But Bonkers is perfect in its simplicity: its small number of lyrics means punters will have remembered it entirely within a handful of listens, and there is a darkness in lines like "I let sanity give me the slip".

that girl's from school, that girl's from college
that girl gives brains, that girl gives knowledge

Then I stumbled across "I Luv U". Dizzee's first hit (although by now pretty much buried by his later successes), "I Luv U" is dark, abrasive and unmistakably urban. At ten years old, it's dated as badly as most electronic music of its era but is still phenomenal. Sure, some might dismiss Dizzee's lyrics as "chavvy" in both content and slang, but its message is an important one. And are such lyrics significantly better than that of your average guitar-rock band?

My point, then, is that people shouldn't feel the need to restrict their musical tastes by class or anything. Should Dizzee Rascal be a guilty pleasure for me, a middle class white kid? Don't be ridiculous. Even back in 2007, he was collaborating with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen, who are as "white" as you can get. Those who can't accept hip-hop - and grime - as part of mainstream entertainment to be enjoyed by anyone needs to fix up and look sharp. (Geddit?)