Dizzee Rascal On The Mercury Prize

added 10 September 2003 at 11.52

18 year old East London MC Dizzee Rascal has won the 2003 Mercury Music Prize for his debut album 'Boy In Da Corner' and Xfm Online spoke to him minutes after he picked up the prestigious award.

While The Darkness were favourites to win the award, at 7-2, Dizzee Rascal picked up the Mercury Music Prize last night despite odds of 9-2. It was regarded as something as a shock as many people had assumed that the award would go to either The Darkness, Coldplay or Radiohead who've now been nominated four times, but never won.

In addition neither Coldplay or Radiohead actually turned up at the ceremony at the Grosvenor House in London last night (September 9) (Coldplay are currently in Mexico promoting the Make Trade Fair charity), but the audience included all the other nominated artists, last year's winner Ms Dynamite, Elbow and most impressively of all, Charlotte Church.

Speaking to Xfm Online minutes after receiving the award (and a cheque for £20,000) Dizzee Rascal (a.k.a. Dylan Mills), explained how he felt (although it may have lost something during the transcription)

"I feel amazing. London, it's real. Big shout to the underground. Y'know?" he opined, "I'm just really happy for the underground cos there's MCs, DJs and underground stations all doing that same thing as me. We're just gonna keep rolling on, doing it, that's what I'm saying."

When asked if he imagined his life would change now he's received such a prestigious award, the MC (who at 18 is the youngest person to win the Mercury) ever didn't seem convinced.

"I'm not sure," he explained, "The only thing that's gonna change is that I plan to just get even more focused and keep going where I want to go, y'know what mean? All this is just a bonus for me, but I've got so much more to do."

The full list of nominees was:

  • Coldplay 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head'
  • Radiohead 'Hail To The Thief'
  • The Darkness 'Permission To Land'
  • Dizzee Rascal 'Boy In Da Corner'
  • The Thrills 'So Much For The City'
  • Athlete 'Vehicles & Animals'
  • Terri Walker 'Untitled'
  • Floetry 'Floetic'
  • Soweto Kinch 'Conversations With The Unseen'
  • Martina Topley-Bird 'Quixotic'
  • Eliza Carthy 'Anglicana'
  • Lemon Jelly 'Lost Horizons'

 

Tagged as Dizzee Rascal, archive

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