by Laura Stone (The Ottawa Citizen)

Dizzee Rascal, the young U.K. hip hopper known for popularizing the jagged style called Grime, is on the phone from London. But he can’t talk for long. The 22-year-old with the unpolished East London accent - who spun records on pirate radio stations, was stabbed five times in Cyprus when he was 18, and who encourages his fan to “get high, get drunk” at his shows - is worried about breaking the rules.

“In England, it’s against the law to talk and drive, inn’it?” he asks, and not the least bit rhetorically.

It’s a fitting introduction to the man who just released his third album, Maths + English, in the United States (released last year in Canada), and who stops at the Capital Music Hall in Ottawa on Monday. Here in America, as he calls it, you can spit rhymes and drive all you like.

It’s just another reason for Dizzee to embrace the continent on which hip hop was born, and has more influence over his music than ever.

“It’s probably the most American-sounding album I’ve got,” he says of Maths + English, named after his theory of music - the beats and bars (maths) and rhymes and lyrics (English).

“I started listening to things like Eazy-E, and it just reminded me of like the simple, to-the-point rappin’. Like not trying to be over-complicated, and difficult and clever.”

It’s the logical next step in a genre that Dizzee says has always been influenced by American life.

“U.K. hip hop was born of American culture, not British culture,” he says. “Along the way, we found a bit more of our identity - i.e. grime and bop step maybe - but other than that it’s inspired by America.”

Grime is still Dizzee’s modus operandi.

It’s been five years since his first album, 2003’s Boy in da Corner, was released to critical acclaim, winning then-17-year-old Dizzee what is perhaps the U.K.’s most coveted musical award, the Mercury Prize. But his voice still gains momentum when asked to describe what grime is all about.

“For me, grime was just people in the ghetto making music, and making the best of the situation, the best of what they had via pirate radio and raves. That’s how we got our music distributed, that’s how we got heard,” he says.

On Maths + English, his usual grime and drum n’ bass sound, which he describes as “sparse and intense,” has been subsidized by old-school hip hop and rock. It’s a stylistic shift that has some grime fans accusing him of selling out.

To that, Dizzee has a most Dylan-esque response: “I never ever said my music was grime in the first place. I never said, ‘this is a grime song.’ Everyone else did and I just kind of went along with it because people decided and named it. All I was doing was making music, like I still am today.”

Regardless of criticisms, the accessibility of his new album makes it easier for his fans -his American ones, no doubt - to understand where he’s coming from. Or to just plain understand him.

“I like that style of delivery, especially performance-wise. ‘Cause when I’m doing a show, people understand more of what you’re sayin’, and more people can just take part. I love vibe-sing with the crowd.”

If there’s anyone who can make “vibe-sing” sound like a word, it’s Dizzee Rascal. Even in conversation, he punches out phrases as if he were still playing DJ on the pirate stations where he made a name for himself as a teen with the underground hit I Love You.

He delivers answers with an energy that is usually reserved for performance, not long-distance phone interviews.

It’s a passion that Dizzee hopes to convey on his new album. And it’s been there since hip hop first entered his life.

“I never experienced music that was speaking to me like that,” he says when asked about his love for rap. “Someone like Tupac spoke to me, he spoke to my soul. I mean, that was a lot for me.”

His influences, like Tupac, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and especially Snoop Dogg, help fuel Dizzee’s very ambitious fire.

“Snoop still excites me. When I see a new Snoop Dogg video, it make me feel like a kid again, it make me feel excited. And to think that he’s been big and still doing it like what, 12 years. I want to be able to do that at the biggest level.”

Although he’s since moved out of the East London ghetto, Dizzee says he still visits his old friends from time to time.

He also makes the occasional appearance on London’s underground grime radio stations.

But the boy in da corner is starting to grow older-and wiser. He offers advice to aspiring musicians with the words of someone who, at 22, has learned a thing or two about the biz.

“Keep working hard. Make sure you have fun. And don’t let it get to your head.”

“At least not for too long,” he says.

With that, he says his goodbyes and hangs up the phone. He’s got to travel to Brighton to cut a track with fellow U.K. star Fatboy Slim, for the DJ’s new album.

And he’s waiting for a ride.