London rapper Dizzee Rascal won the Mercury Music Prize once, and he was nominated again for his third album - not bad for a 21-year-old who makes party music, writes Jim Carroll.

D izzee Rascal whips out his phone. He has been talking about the new school of rappers who are coming up in London and he's just remembered this kid he'd spotted in a park in Bow a few nights ago. He flicks through his phone until he finds the video footage.

"There, there, that's him," he says, pointing to one of a bunch of youngsters spitting rhymes. "Everyone is an MC round there, but they have to realise they have to become artists. Too many of them are just emulating some s**t I was doing five or six years ago. They're scared to be creative and let themselves go. That young one, though, is good, he has the spark, he has potential."

The man born Dylan Mills speaks in the experienced tones of someone who has released three albums, won the Mercury Prize for his debut album and has an international reputation for his sound. Yet Dizzee is just 21 years old.

A couple of short years ago, he would probably have been one of those ruffians jostling for attention in the park.

Dizzee finds himself in a very interesting place a couple of months on from the release of album number three, Maths & English. His record contract with the XL label has come to an end - "it's a good position to be in, you know" - and the rapper is now weighing up what comes next. After all, changes in the music industry impact on everyone.

"I've definitely done more live gigs this year than ever before," he notes. "It has been ridiculous. When I was in Ireland for the Oxegen gig in the summer, it was the fourth show in four days in four different countries. It has been like that since the album came out."

Selling records was never a problem for Dizzee. Back in the day, he went around London estates, selling records from the boot of his car.

"I could easily sell a couple of thousand copies of my record to the shops and I sold 10,000 copies of I Luv Ufrom the boot of my car before I even got a record deal. The tune was massive, man."

But he knows those days are over. Everything has changed in the underground scene that nurtured him in the first place.

"People were buying vinyl back then, but that ain't going on now because people are downloading the tunes. You've still the pirate stations and people making DVDs and mix-tapes, but it's not as creative as it was.

"When I came up, the scene was full of events and happenings, underage raves and club nights. Now that's nearly all gone. There are only a few garage events left because venues just won't let them in because of the violence. The scene is not as productive or as high-profile as it was years ago."

He sits back on the sofa and sighs softly. All of these changes come at a time when he is producing the best cuts of his career. Maths & Englishwas probably the pick of his three albums to date, a collection that shows a new confidence and maturity to Dizzee's rattle. "I wanted to make party music again," he explains. "[The first album] Boy in Da Cornerhad a lot of energy and depth to it, but the second one went a bit too deep and dark. It was all 'look at what I can do'. That's why I called it Showtime. This time, sure, I covered some issues, like on World Outside, but I really wanted to make an album which was about partying."

That's how he began. "I'd make a tune during the day and then take it to the under-18s rave at night. It was party music pure and simple. My edge then was I could write about real subjects as well as make sharp beats."

But Dizzee knows that he can't just go thinking he's still that kid in the corner.

"I don't want to pretend I'm still a 16-year-old kid. A lot of rappers don't want to grow up or face facts about reality, but so much has happened to me in the last few years.

"I have taken everything which has happened with a pinch of salt. Some of it went over my head and a lot of it baffled me. I tried not to wallow in it too much, like when I won the Mercury Music Prize and just concentrated on the music. I found the best way to deal with it was to just keep making music and I haven't really stopped working. It has been album after album after album."

There ahs always been been chatter about how Dizzee could become the first British rapper to make a splash in the United States, but to date, it hasn't happened. Dizzee, though, is not too bothered about this. "I quickly learned that it really was another world out there when it comes to rap," he says. "There's a lot of American rappers and they're all finding it hard to make it, so I'm up against all them. I learned to take my time, to not stress about trying to make it."

He's a keen student of the US hip-hop game and took more than a passing interest in the storm earlier this year about rap lyrics, which saw politicians, community leaders and hip-hop activists having a good old-fashioned row.

"I really can't listen to someone like [Def Jam label founder] Russell Simmons, someone who made millions from selling rap records, when he starts up with this s**t. There has always been an offensive side to hip-hop, that's what gangsta rap has always been about.

"Rappers didn't invent these words. I mean, you've had films portraying that lifestyle long before hip-hop came along. There were westerns which were more violent than anything NWA came out with. Everyone can't be Will Smith, everyone can't be making family-friendly hip-hop for the masses."

To Dizzee, hip-hop reflects where it's coming from. "When you grow up on an inner-city council estate, the mentality is always about who is the toughest and the roughest and the bravest. The reason why people love rap is that you have people from those ghettos putting that across in their songs.

"The thing about the Americans, because of how their entertainment industry works, is that they make that s**t look good. When someone is chasing you down the street with a knife or shooting at you, it's not fun in real life. But American rap videos from someone like 50 Cent make it look glamorous. They're surreal and have that entertainment value which makes people like Jimmy Iovine pick up on it."

Dizzee himself has left his own set of mean streets behind him, but he still regularly returns to get a sense of what is happening. He says that you have to touch base and stay connected. The best place to go to get the word on the streets? The barbershop. "You can find out a lot sitting in the barbers," he grins.

Dizzee Rascal plays Tripod, Dublin, tonight in SomeDaysNeverEnd, a week-long music and art festival in the grounds of IMMA in Kilmainham, running until Nov 3rd. www.somedaysneverend.com