Dizzee Calvin heights

Winning Dance Wiv Me combo team up on next single Holiday

06 July 2009 - UK hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal has been discussing his latest work with electro-pop producer Calvin Harris and big-time dance remixer Armand Van Helden.

He was one the headliners at Wireless festival in Hyde Park on Saturday (4 July) and he performed tracks from his new album including Road Rage, Dirty Cash and the new single, Holiday.

Speaking to 6 Music about joining forces with Calvin again, Dizzee said: "He produced the track. After Dance Wiv Me I thought it would definitely be good to work with this guy again so I asked him for another beat.

"People think I’m going towards the mainstream and that, but that [Bonkers] is very gritty."
Dizzee Rascal

"He sent me a few and that was the one that stuck with me so I wrote a song. We left it for a little bit, this happened last year really, and then finally got it up to scratch now, everybody’s loving it."

The pair never actually go into the studio together but use the internet to send tracks back and forth.

Holiday is undoubtedly a song for the summer and Dizzee unveiled the thinking behind it: "Basically I’m the knight in shining armour man.

"I’m just saying ‘You wanna go away, let’s go away, let’s drive away, we could rave, let’s go on holiday’, and have a good time and forget about all the worries."

It’s bonkers

It seems Dizzee is the master collaborator at the moment after he recently teamed up with Armand Van Helden on the number one hit Bonkers.

Dizzee admitted they had it in the making for some time.

"He [Armand] sent me the tune, I heard it, wrote to it," he explained. "Then we sat on it for ages, didn’t really play it out or anything and then the one time I performed it live, it was bigger than Dance Wiv Me at the time Dance Wiv Me was number one."

As for how the pair got together, he added: "He [Armand] just approached me and sent the track, out of the blue."

The song has proved a huge hit in clubs and it went down a storm at Glastonbury festival when Dizzee took to the Pyramid Stage.

"It’s very, very dirty," he said of Bonkers’ bass line. "A lot of people think I’m going towards the mainstream and that, but that is very gritty. It’s almost amazing how it made it on to radio."

Georgie Rogers