"I Luv U" | ||||
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Single by Dizzee Rascal | ||||
from the album Boy in da Corner | ||||
Released | 26 May 2003 | |||
Format |
CD single vinyl |
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Recorded | 2002 | |||
Genre | Grime | |||
Length | 4:05 | |||
Label | XL, Dirtee Stank | |||
Songwriter(s) | Dylan Mills | |||
Producer(s) | Dizzee Rascal | |||
Dizzee Rascal singles chronology | ||||
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"I Luv U" is the debut single by British rapper Dizzee Rascal and the lead single from his debut album Boy in da Corner. It was released in May 2003 after a test pressing had leaked to the Internet in 2002. The single became Dizzee Rascal's first top forty hit, peaking at number twenty-nine and spending three weeks inside the top seventy-five. It is sometimes mistaken for the second single released by Dizzee Rascal, after number two, "Fix Up, Look Sharp".
The song was produced with female vocalist and East London rapper Shystie. The song opens with a stuttering voice repeating the song's title, leading into a bass-heavy rhythm. It discusses about teenage relationships, teenage pregnancy, undesirable player girls and falling for girls who are using you. More specifically, the song chronicles a relationship where sex is used as blackmail ending up in the eventual breakdown of said relationship when the male character starts fantasizing about a college girl. Although the college girl has escaped the ghetto via education, according to Dizzee, she still gives "ghetto head".
The Wire described "I Luv U"'s impact on grime as "analogous to "Anarchy in the U.K." for punk rock." The track was named as one of the best songs released between 2000 and 2003 in the 2008 book The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present.