There was much speculation that Showtime, the second LP from 2003 Mercury Music Prize winner Dizzee Rascal would see this UK Garage prodigy turn his back on the Hackney estates and tighten ties with the American hip-hop fraternity. Thankfully, this is a good a time as any to say 'You can take the boy out of Bow but you can't take the Bow out of the boy', for Showtimepresents a Dizzee bolder, brassier, but no less indebted to his grimy past. It's all here - lo-tech video game production ("Stand Up Tall"), bizarre threats of violence ("I'm 5'10", chocolate skin/ I'll punch you in your nostril, I'll punch you in your shin," goes "Everywhere"), and frequent flashes of lunatic humour that elevate Dizzee above his UK Garage peers: take "Dreams", which uses a sample of Captain Sensible's "Happy Talk" to bemusing and hilarious effect. Sober reflection remains part of the Rascal worldview, as on "Imagine" - a truly fragile wisp of synth and strings reminiscent of Aphex Twin's ambient moments. But balance is crucial, and that comes with stone-cold playa anthem 'Girls', performed alongside curiously high-pitched Dizzee affiliate Marga Man: "So much gash, no time to rest" --Louis Pattison