Dizzee Rascal honoured with five Number 1 Awards
Last night (Wednesday, June 20), London rapper Dizzee Rascal was honoured by the Official Charts Company at the UK Music summer reception at London’s Commonwealth Club.
As the world’s media attention turns towards East London for the imminent London 2012 celebrations, the UK’s music industry, with a little help from legendary Soul II Soul founder Jazzie B, shone its spotlight on home-grown East End star Dizzee Rascal.
Celebrating 60 years of the Official Singles Chart in 2012, the Official Charts Company launched the Official Number 1 Award. The brushed aluminium trophy is now presented to each new single that lands the coveted Number 1 spot on the UK’s Official Singles Chart.
Dizzee Rascal, aka Dylan Kwabena Mills, has become the first male contemporary artist to be presented with his full set of Official Number 1 Awards. Soul pioneer and fellow Londoner Jazzie B passed on the musical baton to Dizzee, handing over five awards to recognise the 27 year old’s five UK Number 1s:
- Dance Wiv Me (2008)
- Bonkers (2009)
- Holiday (2009)
- Dirtee Disco (2010)
- Shout (2010)
To date, Dizzee’s celebrated Official Number 1 singles have sold in excess of 2.06million copies combined.
On presenting the awards to Dizzee, Jazzie B said “Congratulations from the old skool, to the new skool. Tonight’s about you Mr Rascal.”
Dizzee said “It’s an honour to receive these very unique awards and to be recognised by the Official Charts Company for my five UK Number 1s. I’ve had a good time making these records and am excited about my new album as there will definitely be a few more on there”
Later in the evening in a video interview with OfficialCharts.com, Dizzee went on to say “To get to Number 1, everyone wants to get to Number 1. No matter who talks about ‘they don’t want to make music for the radio, they don’t care about being big’ and blah blah blah…Really, from being a kid, if you make music you think about being Number 1 in the charts. Everyone does. Even when I made underground music, I looked at the charts and thought ‘One day. One day. One Day’. It took a while, but I got there!”
Watch the full interview below:
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