2003 Mercury Music Prize winner. Every once in a while a new artist comes along to remind us that the UK is still a potent force in musical alchemy. Furthermore, there's a strain of these inspired partisans who have the guts, drive and talent to rope off a large portion of a US-dominated international urban scene call it their own. Ms Dynamite, Roots Manuva and Mike 'The Streets' Skinner have all been blessed with a singular gift, have all sprung from the UK's deep urban music well and have all delivered traffic-stoppingbodies of work. However, in order for UK urban music to continue to hold its position, we need a feed of new talent. It doesn't – and shouldn't – happen every month or even every year, but it certainly needs to happen. Ladies and gentlemen, make room for Dizzee Rascal.

Those who think these things might have wondered what would have happened if The Streets had come up through the Hackney frontline? What if Naomi Dynamite had used her underground garage baton to smash a wormhole in the UK hip-hop galaxy? What if dancehall producer Lenky 'Diwali' Marsden had come from Mars rather than Jamaica? What if Cannibal Ox had a stall in Walthamstow market? What if one of the most invigorating new bloods on the UK urban underground got himself a decent record deal? Well, time's up and the dreaming's done as Dizzee Rascal is all this and more. The 'Boys In Da Corner' debut is an uncompromising panoply of the rawest, hardest beats you're likely to hear outside of the Valvesound-system and the kind of dextrous rhyming skills that take in UKG, hip-hop and dancehall. All at once.

That this album will win prizes is beyond doubt although it remains to be seen whether those who aren't used to the real sound of the underground will have the breadth of mind to embrace the Dizzee man. However the gauntlet is on the ground and it was Dizzee Rascal and 'The Boys In Da Corner' set who threw it there. Not just album of the next century, but of the century after as well.