Dirty Dike – Sucking On Prawns In The Moonlight LP (2015)

On early August, the best UK hip hop label these years, High Focus, dropped the new Dirty Dike's single ''I Ain't Got A Clue'', and at first I was a bit confused by the change of sound compared to his previous records. But after a few listens, I was totally hooked. The production by Joe Corfield goes so hard you can't do shit but head banging to the beat, especially in the middle of the second verse where a little mind blowing melody appears, so fucking intense it's driving me nuts every time. I think I listened to the song on repeat for two weeks. Finally, I ended up knowing all the lyrics, all the fine details in the instrumental. Total ripper. Dike is spitting his rhymes furiously, mixing serious topics with dark and tasteless humor the way he's so good at. Starting right on with ''I'm about to phone your mum a cab / Sober up your slag, don't open up your flange / Here, smoke a bunch of skag / Only joking, I'm your dad'', you know Dikestar still got it. Then he sums up in two lines what life is about ''Bollocks in a festival of stress / Living of promises and debts'', and throws a good punch in the face to all the fake MCs ''Rappers stepping to me, they want to get some / But most of them should go and eat a hand full of fuckin' shit / Suck a dick and tick accomplished on your bucket list / And fist Cliff Richard with a rubber glove and oven mitt (…) I see the fake in your physical shape / Give me a break, you're lyrically living in shame / This shit is a game, I'm winning cause I live in it mate / You ain't committed, more addicted to your minimum wage''. Checkmate, mate. This single is a total banger, same for the second one called ''Isleham Swamp'', still a Joe Corfield production (damn, the guy is so talented. Props to him) closer to mid 90s U.S. East Coast sound to me. I can feel Pete Rock or Lord Finesse's influences in it. Awesome beat and flow once again. That's about the time I thought ''How Dirty Dike could be stopped?''. Well, he can't. Now he has found his own sound and flow, his own style. You can feel and hear he matured a lot on this record. The production is more eery and gives a personnal atmosphere to the whole shit. Lyrics aren't anymore all about egotripping and partying with friends, but show a more introspecting, vulnerable side. Plus, the use of a lot of strange metaphors adds something special and unique to the character. Dike definitely hits another level on this Sucking On Prawns In The Moonlight. It starts with a song featuring the amazing Fliptrix (also member of The Four Owls), oddly without any beat, just a chilling instrumental. Then moves on with ''Alcoholic Tosser'', and I let you guess what it's about. To me, the best songs are definitely the two singles I talked about above, as well as ''Crystal Cindy'', ''Prawns'', ''Feast'' and ''Hold My Hands''. This one has a dope eery prod where you can admire all the lyrical and rapping talent of Dirty Dike. He's on fire and thanks warmly everyone who helped him through difficult times, apologizing to all the ones he hurt through the years. Beautiful song straight from the heart. Then it leaves us with the last song ''Posse Gang Eight Millions'' featuring all his friends from High Focus, Jam Baxter, Remus, Ocean Wisdom (keep an eye on this guy, he's going hard and gonna make a lot of noise soon), Lee Scott and Dabbla. A nearly ten minutes track on an excellent dark and sinister production by Dike himself. A damn good record, and I think even the best effort from this English wanker. For the old fans, don't worry, he's still funny and filthy as hell, and like he says it well :