Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Bonkers The Story of by Paul Lester Smurfie Syco (No 762) The background: Three years after we first featured him, Tinie Tempah is No 1 and he's being talked up as the new Tinchy Stryder, or talking himself up as the next Damon Albarn, as he did in last week's NME. So fully expect Smurfie Syco to chart in roughly, ooh, 2013. Actually, given the current popularity of popped-up grime boys such as Tinchy and Tinie, he probably won't have to wait that long, although whether he has it in him to become, a la Damon, a polymorphously eclectic and restlessly prolific artist venturing into all sorts of areas via all manner of multimedia routes remains to be seen. It probably helps to have Dizzee Rascal in his corner – the young MC is signed to his label and Dizzee is mooted as executive producer of his debut album. There are Smurfie tracks all over YouTube, all quite different from each other, so it's hard to say what direction he'll be pursuing. But it would appear that Tinie's recent assertion about wanting to make commercial pop songs, not just grime tracks for a cult minority, has struck a chord with Syco. He will also surely have watched closely as his mentor Dizzee went supernova after he embraced pop. Let's hope the one pop track we've heard by him, I'm the Sex, isn't the template for that debut album. "Oh, baby, scream my name," he raps over a tepid urban melody. "I might like you better if we slept together," it goes on, like an R&B-lite version of Beach Boys' Wouldn't It Be Nice lewdly interrupted by R Kelly. It's hard to square this song with some of the other Syco stuff doing the rounds on YouTube, tracks from a mixtape called SmurfieSyco.com that he put out last year. Don't Start Nuffin is heavy, pounding grimestep (a genre we think we just made up), all deep, growly, reverberating subsonic bass, distorted drums, and computer-game bloops and bleeps. I'll Be Back samples Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator and is heavier than the Prodigy doing Led Zep's Trampled Underfoot produced by Kode9. Crush is dancier, Where's Your Head At? samples Basement Jaxx, while Hellrazor is powerful dub-grime. Grub? Dime? He really is all over YouTube like a rash – we found a track of his called Sexxxplicit, sharp future-tronica set to porn stars doing the biz, only with the offending parts replaced by cartoon bananas and sweets. There's even footage of him explaining how to make a handy cup out of a Ribena carton, like he's a presenter on an episode of Blue Peter directed by the people behind Dubplate Drama. No, we can't wait for this Syco to make it big. The buzz: "Smurfie is set to take his grime ethos and apply it to crafting timeless tracks that impact greatly on the individual" – Grime Wikipedia. The truth: His "flow" isn't all that, but he's got some interesting ideas (and some rubbish ones), and with Dizzee at the controls this Syco is sure to send the pop-grime massive Bonkers. Most likely to: Remain single – the laydeez love him cos he's buff innit. Least likely to: Date Valerie Singleton. What to buy: His debut single proper will be released by Dirtee Stank in August. File next to: Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, Itchy Robot, Dizzee Rascal. Bonkers: The Story of Dizzee Rascal by Paul Lester. Din vej ind i musikken. Kundeservice FAQ Om os. Om os Stepnote Publishing Hjælp os til at blive bedre. Se alle nyheder Se alle nyeste produkter Tilmeld Nyhedsbrev Se alle vores nyhedsbreve her. Lær durskalaer Transponering - Lær at transponere Lær akkorderne på klaveret Lær nodernes og pausernes værdier Lær Noder Fortegn - lær om fortegn Oversigt over musiksymboler Guide til at komme igang med musikken! Om Instrumenter. Log ind Ønskeliste Opret bruger Nyhedstilmelding. Kundeservice FAQ Om os. Om os Stepnote Publishing Hjælp os til at blive bedre. Se alle nyheder Se alle nyeste produkter Tilmeld Nyhedsbrev Se alle vores nyhedsbreve her. Lær durskalaer Transponering - Lær at transponere Lær akkorderne på klaveret Lær nodernes og pausernes værdier Lær Noder Fortegn - lær om fortegn Oversigt over musiksymboler Guide til at komme igang med musikken! Om Instrumenter. Log ind Ønskeliste Opret bruger Nyhedstilmelding. Forside / Produkter / Genrer / Hip-Hop / Dizzee Rascal: Bonkers - The Story Of. Dylan Kwabena Mills, better known as Dizzee Rascal, has evolved from cutting-edge grime and UK hip hop pioneer into one of Britain?s biggest pop stars. And he?s done it without compromising one iota of his startlingly original vision and unique persona. In Bonkers Paul Lester traces Dizzee?s development as the East London rapper, and , of Ghanaian and Nigerian descent, forged a career, first as a pirate radio DJ aged 16, then as a member of grime collective the Roll Deep Crew, and finally as a solo artist. It also reveals how Dizzee?s distinctive style ? a hybrid of garage, rap, grime, ragga, dancehall and electronica - and skewed observations of low- rent city life helped him become, at 19, the youngest person ever to win the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 2003 with his extraordinary debut album . In this no-holds-barred account, read about Dizzee?s stabbing in Ayia Napa, his gradual infiltration of the mainstream: rapping on Band Aid 20?s ? Do They Know It?s Christmas?? in 2004, his three Number 1 singles with ??, ?Bonkers? and ?Holiday?, and unlikely appearance on BBC2?s Newsnight where he was grilled about politics by Jeremy Paxman and joked that he could one day be Prime Minister. Stranger things have happened ? and they?re all in Bonkers: The Story of Dizzee Rascal. Paul Lester is the author of acclaimed biographies of post punk legends Gang Of Four and Wire, and pop superstar Pink, all published by Omnibus Press. He also contributes to The Guardian and The Sunday Times. New library books. Although the library receives most of its new items ready for the start of the school year in September, there is still a steady trickle of new books arriving later in the year. Recent arrivals have included: Submarine – Joe Dunthorne Bonkers: the story of Dizzee Rascal – Paul Lester You against me – Jenny Downham A game of thrones – George R. R. Martin The walking dead volume 12: life among them – Robert Kirkman. New books don’t always stay on the shelf long. You can use the library catalogue to reserve books someone else has borrowed or click the What’s new quick link on the main search page to see what’s arrived recently. Zeitoun. When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans most people managed to evacuate before the winds roared in and the floodwaters began to rise. Those who were still trapped in the city faced a nightmarish struggle to survive. This is the true story of a man who decided to stay behind when everyone else was desperate to get out. With hindsight Abdulrahman Zeitoun should have evacuated with his family but like everyone else in New Orleans he accepted the occasional hurricane threat as part of life. By the time it became clear that this time was different it was too late. At that point most people would have holed up and waited to be rescued. Abdulrahman dug out on old canoe and set out across the drowned city to see if there was anything he could do to help. Paddling across a post-apocalyptic landscape he slowly uncovers a new world. He rescues desperate people from their collapsing homes, feeds starving pets, liberates goldfish, faces down armed gangs and generally proves that desperate situations do sometimes create heroes. Zeitoun is a perfect example of a true life story that is weirder, more inspiring and darker than any fiction. There’s a shocking twist about two thirds of the way in that would seem farfetched if this was a novel. Without the final section this would be an uplifting story of someone struggling to help others in a terrible situation. The later chapters give this book a much more sinister edge. The authorities’ desperate attempts to regain control manage to make the city even more dangerous. An already terrible situation is complicated by the paranoia flowing from the war on terror. Dave Eggers first encountered Abdulrahman’s story in Voices from the Storm, a collection of eyewitness accounts of the hurricane and its aftermath. Incidentally that earlier book is also very good and available in the college library. Eggers decided that this was a story that needed to be told in more detail. He approached the family and convinced them to share their experiences with him. The resulting book sometimes reads like an adventure story but the knowledge that all this happened to real people does give it extra power. I’m sure Richmond readers will have other reviews of books where the hero is struggling to do the right thing after society has collapsed around them. Read Zeitoun if you want to know what it was really like to live through an apocalypse. New library books. Although the library receives most of its new items ready for the start of the school year in September, there is still a steady trickle of new books arriving later in the year. Recent arrivals have included: Submarine – Joe Dunthorne Bonkers: the story of Dizzee Rascal – Paul Lester You against me – Jenny Downham A game of thrones – George R. R. Martin The walking dead volume 12: life among them – Robert Kirkman. New books don’t always stay on the shelf long. You can use the library catalogue to reserve books someone else has borrowed or click the What’s new quick link on the main search page to see what’s arrived recently. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. By Philip K Dick. The Earth has been nearly destroyed by war. Most people have escaped to the off-world colonies; lured by the promise of a new life and the offer of free android slaves to keep them company and to help them tame the wilderness. Every now and again an android kills its master and runs away. They often head for the Earth in the hope that amongst the chaos of a post-apocalyptic world they will be able to pass as human. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter hired by the government to track down and kill escaped androids. Sounds familiar? “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” was the inspiration for the brilliant but less interestingly named movie “Blade Runner”. Sadly Philip K Dick died just before the film introduced his vision to a wider audience. Since then other filmmakers have drawn on his work. “Total Recall” was based on his short story “We Can Remember it for you Wholesale”. More recently “Minority Report”, “A Scanner Darkly” and “The Adjustment Bureau” have all been turned into films which actually used his titles for a change. The extra interest generated by those movies has helped to cement his reputation as one of the greatest and certainly one of the most original science fiction writers. Philip K Dick’s work changed the face of science fiction. With his dark gritty dystopias and paranoid visions of the future he helped pioneer the cyberpunk style. His trademark is playing with our perceptions of reality. He used parallel universes, mind-altering drugs, hallucinations, doppelgangers, Gnostic mysticism, government conspiracies, androids and every other trick in the book to confuse his characters and his readers. His stories seem to be designed to make us distrust our senses and our assumptions about the world around us. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” is about what it means to be human. In the universe of this book humanity is defined by empathy. People believe that it is our ability to feel for another person and to feel compassion towards them that makes us human. The androids or replicants are virtually indistinguishable from us in every single way but they are unable to feel empathy. Deckard is a professional killer. If empathy is the criterion how “human” is he? That question is further complicated by repeated hints that he might not be who he thinks he is and by his romantic relationship with a replicant. One of the strengths of the novel is the powerful evocation of a dying world. The battle between Deckard and the replicants is fought amongst the crumbling ruins of San Francisco. War has all but destroyed civilization. The Earth has become a rubbish tip. Practically everyone has left for the colonies. Those left behind are seen as the dregs of society. Many of them are members of the mutant underclass who aren’t allowed to emigrate. Everything is slowly decaying into garbage or “kipple”. Thanks to war guilt and their belief in empathy everyone on Earth feels that it is their duty to look after an animal. Thanks to World War Terminus there aren’t many animals left so obviously they are very expensive. More and more people are trying to save money while keeping up appearances by buying a robot animal and pretending it’s real. In a nice ironic twist Rick owns an electric sheep. He is desperate to hunt down the six androids and claim the reward because he dreams of owning a real animal. Until then the bounty hunter who kills replicant humans for a living has to care for a replicant sheep. Philip K Dick breaks up the darkness of the novel with some nice comic moments. The robot animals are used to make a serious point but they also provide a touch of humour. The same could also be said of a nifty little household gadget that allows people to dial up the mood they want to be in. Don’t go away thinking that all this talk of philosophy and confused identity means this is a slow read. This is a story full of action and mystery. The hunt for the replicants is dramatic and intense. Deckard’s conscience is tortured but circumstances force him to act like a remorseless killing machine. Philip K Dick is one of the iconic figures of science fiction writing. This book explores the questions that obsessed him throughout his life; questions that undermine our everyday view of reality and of our own identity. What does it mean to be human? What is real? Does it matter? “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Dizzee Rascal vows to stick around as long as Sir Paul McCartney. Dizzee Rascal is planning on having as long a career as Sir Paul McCartney. © Bang Showbiz Dizzee Rascal. The 'Bonkers' rapper looks up to The Beatles legend, who is still releasing music and playing shows at the age of 78, and hopes he'll follow in his footsteps by still being around for decades to come. Speaking about being honoured with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours this month, Dizzee, 36, told The Sun newspaper: "It just makes me want to keep doing more. I look at the grades and I look at the people that have been in it for longer. Look at Paul McCartney — he’s been in music more than 50 years. He’s 78 and it doesn’t seem like he’s slowing down. “He’s been a major pop star, then they made some really experimental cool stuff in The Beatles. Then with his solo career he’s done so much. He’s with Stevie Wonder one minute, then he’s doing 'Rupert And The Frog Song'. “The range is crazy. And he’s still here. Everyone still knows who he is. That’s the goal.” Meanwhile, Dizzee teased his upcoming collaboration with his business advisor, Noel Gallagher. The 'Dance Wiv Me' hitmaker revealed the track got put together during lockdown and he was surprised by how different the former Oasis star, 53, sounds on the song. He said: “I used to call Noel, usually for advice on business and s*** like that. The track came about in the first couple of weeks of the lockdown. I’d really got stuck in with making beats and it was that real intense period. “I had nothing to do because the album was done, so I called up MJ Cole — I worked with him before we made (2013 track) ''. I asked him if he had had anything he didn’t use for his classical music album ('MJ Cole Presents Madrugada') that I could sample, so he sent me something. “Then I sent it to Noel Gallagher and a month later or something, he sent it back. I was shocked. I listened to it and I thought, ‘Wow!’ It didn’t even sound like him. “I did a song with DJ Fresh, 'How Love Begins', and Noel texted me saying he loved the tune. He wasn’t just born with guitar music in his head. “Doing that with Noel gave me such a thrill because I’ve always wanted to have someone massive on a beat I’ve made. I loved Oasis. I love both Noel and Liam. I loved Liam’s documentary. They’re legends.”