Dizzee Rascal - Dream

URFANA ALAM

What is the main narrative and message of the song and how is this added to or altered by the visual elements of the video and the techniques used? Does the video subvert or confirm the messages and content of the song?

Dizzee Rascal plays with the imagery of black people in a white society in the music video “Dream” to represent the difference of culture between the two races. To many people, the music video may seem to very random with no actual meaning behind it however there are many hidden details in the music video that highlight stereotypes about black people. Dizzee Rascal is a black artist from England who rose to fame through his talent in music. Only at the age of 14, he became an amateur drum and base DJ and by age 16 he had self-produced his first single “I Luv U.” From here onward his fame kept growing as he was receiving more and more recognition for his music as time went by. However, Dizzee wanted to break the cycle of black artists being in the rap industry and hence debuted in the pop industry. His music video was widely spread not only because it was his first time doing something different to rap, but more because of the meaning behind the music video.

The video starts with an elderly white lady in a middle-class house setting talking, this itself straight away catches the eye of the audience as seeing this type of person is unusual in a black artist’s music video. Dizzee Rascal is then seen coming out of a “Jack in the box” which is a reference to them saying that black people in a white society are seen as an entertainment source that are controlled by white people, this is why at the end of the song the white elderly lady is seen to be instructing Dizzee to get back into his box almost to say that he’s had his few minutes of fame and now it was time for him to go back into waiting and be ready for when he is next called. The video also uses puppets as characters throughout the whole music video, these puppets play an important role overall as they represent many main factors Dizzee wanted to highlight to the audience. The puppets are seen to be doing multiple illegal tasks such as graffitiing and stealing from shops, a white ginger puppet is also seen laying drunk in the corner of a street, though we cannot tell exactly which nationality Dizzee was trying to show here, but we can guess that he it was most likely to be an Irish person (an Irish stereotype is that they get drunk a lot.) This links back to the 1950’s / 1960’s where many landlords looking for tenants would have the sign saying “No blacks, No dogs, No Irish.” A police puppet is also seen having a brawl with the other black/Irish puppets to which the white lady sitting by the piano reacts shocked and appalled by whatever she see's going on.