I remember being alive in 2003 and seeing Dizzee Rascal on The Box with ‘I Luv U’. His first ever single, released from the seminal Boy in da Corner. I was eight years old. I didn’t understand it at all. Then ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’ came around, and that track blew up like crazy. Had the memorable hook with the stomping drums, sampled from Billy Squier. I was too young to understand the grime movement and how important Dizzee’s success was to it. I just knew that there was this guy existing in the world, out and about with these new songs. And it felt that as soon as 2003 ended and 2004 began, there he was again with this new song called ‘Stand Up Tall’. Hopefully someday an actual high-quality video for the song will arrive on YouTube. For now, it looks like we’ll have to do with the 240p quality that’s available for the time being.

‘Stand Up Tall’ was released as the first single from Dizzee Rascal’s second album Showtime, released in the summer of 2004. I won’t lie to you and say it’s an album I know inside out. I listened to it in full once in about 2015/16 and have proceeded to forget how most of it goes. It was very much critically acclaimed at the time, but a lot of the attention to this day goes to its predecessor. And I mainly remember its singles that were released in its era. But ‘Stand Up Tall’ was the one to mark Dizzee’s return, even if he never really left, and here he was with the bigger-budget music video filmed somewhere in the US, but making sure that you knew he was from London/UK with the predominant showing of the Union Jack, the silver hackney carriage, and the ladies dressed in attire typical of the English capital.

I never saw the music video repeatedly like it usually goes with many of the songs I’ve written about on here. I maybe saw it once or twice on the TV. I instead got well-accustomed to ‘Stand Up Tall’ through its inclusion on the FIFA Street soundtrack. Many weekends were spent playing that one. As was the practice for the company, the track was censored in places – muting the mention of ‘Chinese [zoots]’ and the line about stretching ‘the [arsehole] without straining’. This was the version of the song that I knew for the longest time. When it comes to what the song’s about, well, it’s just Dizzee saying that he’s representing London, stating that he’s got love for his people living in all areas of the UK, warning any haters to not try anything with him ’cause he’ll retaliate, and telling people to get on the dancefloor when his song’s playing and to stop the tough-guy pretenses. And also there’s the message to be confident in yourself and do your best. All delivered along a hectic beat with whirring synths and plucky pizzicato strings.