Pitchfork Forkcast: Video: Dizzee Rascal: "Sirens"

Video: Dizzee Rascal: "Sirens"

"Let's take it back to that old school storytelling shit," Dizzee Rascal says halfway through this gorgeously shot video for his new single, "Sirens". As he raps about being pursued, director W.I.Z. goes with a concept heavy on symbols and imagery: Dizzee becomes the target of a sort of urban fox hunt. The quickness of his flow, along with the jittery bursts of siren noise and guitar chords, set an anxious pace as he runs past "debt free" posters and littered alleyways and hunters decimate everything in their past in his pursuit.

One young girl takes particular glee in the hunt, and gets a reward at the end, as the leader of the hunting group smears blood on her face. Hard to believe this really happens during fox hunts, but it's been a tradition of the sport since it began. Did we know Dizzee would reach that far back?

Video: > Dizzee Rascal: "Sirens"
[from Maths & English; due 06/05/07 on XL]