MONDAY

Grime needs to be looking over its shoulder. The herky-jerky British subgenre of hiphop also known as eskibeat is certainly having its moment. However, grime should be made aware that critical adoration is a fickle thing. One day, it’s all wine and roses; the next, the pencilnecks don’t even return your phone calls. Just ask poor electroclash. Scribes won’t even look up from their iPods when electroclash enters the room. Soon, it will join such other forlorn genres as gabba, IDM, and illbient. But grime’s doing fine now, what with its alien beats sounding like a malfunctioning video arcade and its thick East London accents barely recognizable amid staccato spitfire delivery. After all, street life seems a lot more exotic in Bow than in Southeast D.C., and it’s very nice to have scene writeups in both Vice and the New Yorker. And you can’t discount the talent of grime’s biggest star, Dizzee Rascal. Dizzee’s sophomore release, Showtime, may not be as revolutionary as his debut, Boy in da Corner, but there wasn’t much of a dropoff, either. And I blame my own slight disappointment on the lack of Billy Squier samples on the new disc. The rapper, known to his moms as Dylan Mills, pretty much blew Mike Skinner from the Streets off the stage when the two played here last year, so his charisma and skills should help him survive the inevitable backlash. Dizzee Rascal plays with DJ Wonder at 9 p.m. Monday, April 25, at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $15. (202) 397-7328. (David Dunlap Jr.)