Sell me down the River

Dizzee Rascal is a Hack. A hacky-hack Hack.

Stop your righteously indignant internal dialogue. I'm well aware that the man makes music that many people enjoy. I'm also aware that an artist is well within their rights to evolve the form their craft takes, but Dizzee's recent exploits are pure, unrefined hackery. I'm sure the neon-clad among you will have already downloaded Mr. Rascal's latest effort, Tongue N' Cheek, and enjoyed it immensely. Many of you may also have his Magnum Opus, Boy In Da Corner, stashed away somewhere in your library to boost your indie credentials. The Fact of the matter is that Dizzee has tailored his music for the burgeoning population of Indie kids who like their music to be:

a) Hyperbole of life on streets they've never walked on with a twist of social commentary (See; Immortal Technique, KRS-One)
b) So-cool-it-hurts Danceable music (Justice, ShitDisco, Klaxons)
c) Guitar-twanging, middle-class, skinny-jeans wearing ensembles. (Any amount of Tossers with a record deal)

Dizzee's latest releases combine the first two of this unholy, ungodly and downright unimaginative trifecta to cash in on as many markets as he can. His last two singles, Bonkers and Dance Wiv Me, highlight the change in his career. No more is the Dizzee some of us came to love, his inimitable style sold down the river for commercial success.

Some of you may be unsure of the concept of a Hack. A Hack is a sell-out, an artist (Director, Musician etc.) who undertakes a project solely for the the Money. Dizzee's not alone in his hackery, this is in increasingly alarming trend in the media today. Shows like the X-factor are preaching the Gospel that it's all fine and dandy to sell out your priciples for fifteen minutes of fame. One particular case strikes me from a series many moons ago. A talented band were refused entry into the latter stages of the competition because the show, at the time, had a strictly solo-artists-only policy. After prolonged discussion (15 minutes, max), the lead singer agreed to try as a solo artist and successfully gained a place in the next round. A lead singer sells out his band to try and gain commercial success and what did we do? We watched eagerly, scratching our arses and stuffing handfuls of crisps into our pathetic mouths as if nothing had happened.

This also extends to advertising. To paraphrase a great man, if you do an advert then you are off the creative roll-call. Whoring out your image to a massive company for a vast fee is the epitomy of Hackery. Whether is Jay Leno shovelling Doritos into his gob or Britney Spears hawking Pepsi, the messgae is still the same - I will endorse anything you like for a small fortune. It's a sad state of affairs.

This isn't to say Hackery is always bad, but it should only ever be the resort of the desperate. Willie Nelson has to pay the IRS $9 million, he does a string of Ads for Taco Bell. Jovial Paedophile Roman Polanski agreed to direct the remake of a film (the name of which escapes me at present, just spent 40 minutes trying to search on the internet to no avail) to help to pay his staggering legal costs. These people had real reasons to sell-out, they were facing relative financial hardship. Greed isn't a legitimate reason.

I leave you with a quote from one Michael Caine.

"I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."


Ollie