The track itself is bouncy enough, Dizzee's accented rapping style simultaneously engaging and distracting. His lyrics are cute and depict the story of asking a girl to dance with him at a club. Chrome provides an R&B style vocal spot for the chorus, singing and "whoa"ing. Calvin Harris shells out decent beats and melodies, not really defining the track as something he's put his stamp on but definitely making something interesting and pleasant to listen to. As I said, bouncy enough, but I wouldn't dance to it in the original format. MOS America's CD single comes with three remixes not found on the UK releases: Jason Nevins, Dirty Vegas, and DJ Rap.
'Dance Wiv Me' - Remix By Remix
I'll tackle the Nevins mix first. While I have always felt that Nevins is more in his element with rap than he is with pop divas, I believe he dropped the ball on "Dance Wiv Me." Nevins signature grunge style, snare-and-basslike beats and angry guitars over a simple synth-based melody, does nothing more than carry Dizzee Rascal's lyrics from the beginning of the track to the end. While this mix is definitely sufficient to translate "Dance Wiv Me" to American dancefloors, I really don't think it should. It isn't bad, just not my cup of tea.
Dirty Vegas hits us with a tech-y and interesting mix, big deep beats accompanied by various electronic noises in a "less is more" type attitude. "Less is more" is also a mindframe applied to their use of the lyrics in the track, as Dizzee is only present in the most necessary way possible. It is far more appealing to my ears than the super-busy Nevins mix, but I would love more vocals and perhaps a little more drama.
While definitely not geared for American dancefloors, at only 3:08 and 112bpm, the DJ Rap mix makes me want to shake it far more than the others. DJ Rap, a drum n' bass queen, utilizes more of a reggaeton beat in her mix, the simplistic instrumentation swelling and diminishing over the course of the short mix. My favorite of the ones provided.
Summary
Dizzee Rascal won't be taking over the American clubs with this track, but it's nice to see him try.Release February 2009 on Ministry of Sound - US.
