Craig David is now a national treasure. Well maybe not, but surely he's a contender. I mean he's not on a David Attenborough level yet but he's definitely skirting around the Robbie Williams area.
Only infinitely less annoying, that goes without saying.
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Credit: Robbie Williams
As of 2016 the Craig David resurgence is accelerating on at a very healthy pace, he has a summer of festival appearances lined up and he's been in the studio with everyone from Katy B to Diplo and Big Narstie. He's back proper this time, not like when he made that one song with Kano and then fell off the face of the earth again.
Back in 1999 though the man was a nobody to the majority, as were garage duo The Artful Dodger to those outside of the scene. Then 'Re-Rewind' happened and MTV couldn't get enough of it. MTV, lol wtf is that, shut up grandad.
1999 was a very bleak period where the internet ran at a now extinct speed called dial-up and downloading a song meant waiting about 12 hours. Spare 10 minutes? Quickly stream a pornhub clip before work? Forget about it bro, it's 1999, handsex time would have had to have been carefully orchestrated.
Anyway, 'Re-Rewind' was on every music channel, every radio station and it birthed us Craig David and The Artful Dodger. Both were huge, briefly, then they were deleted from the mainstream almost as quickly as they were inducted.
Here are the duo consisting of Mark Hill and Pete Devereux in their prime in the video for 'Movin Too Fast.'
Well the duo are still doing their thing, here they are in 2016. They are probably playing in a city near you very soon...
Delighted to announce @ArtfulDodgerDJ is coming to Witcombe! Saturday 27th Aug. witcombeciderfestival.co.uk/tickets
Except they are two completely different people, as you can clearly tell. As previously stated, the duo started out as Mark Hill and Pete Devereux, who were responsible for producing all of the group's hits and pretty much spear-heading the UK garage movement.
Today though, the duo consists of DJ Dave Low and MC Alistair which is a real shit name for an MC.
So how can the Artful Dodger claim to be the Artful Dodger when no one responsible for the Artful Dodger is still involved in the project? It's like if the remaining (rubbisher) members of One Direction all left and were replaced with four reprobates that can be found in your local park every day between 2-10PM, the ones with the cans of Special Brew and bottles of Scrumpy. You know the type. They've probably asked you to buy some cigs once or twice.
Or, if they made a movie called Jumanji but instead of Robin Williams it involved The Rock and probably Kevin Hart. Oh.
So how does something like that happen? Not even Mark Hill is completely sure.
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Credit: Getty
Talking to iloveUKG he was asked about just working under the name 'Artful' now and what really happened to the Artful Dodger, "In 2001 after the "It's All About The Stragglers" album I felt I had burnt myself out, and relationships with various people working the project had become very strained," he said. "So I decided it was time to move on and did a deal with Pete so he could carry on with the name, while I concentrated on producing for Craig David and other people.
"To this day I'm not really sure how it came about that Dave Low and MC Alistair took on the name and carried on DJing and releasing as Artful Dodger."
So, to clear up: If you're planning on going to see the Artful Dodger any time soon, what you're seeing has nothing to do with the Artful Dodger. Sure they might drop 'Re-Rewind' and 'Moving Too Fast' but it's little more than a mere cover act, Ded Zeppelin if you will.
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Words by Matthew Cooper
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Craig David