HIP Hop star Dizzee Rascal spoke last night of his delight after his single Bonkers hit the number one spot.

The track - the 24 year-old's second independently released number one single - became the fastest selling song of the year when it topped the charts yesterday.

Speaking before he headlined Newcastle's Evolution festival, the Mercury Music Prize rapper said: "It's nice, it's my second number one, but more importantly, it's the second number one I have had independently.

"I'm not sure if that's been done before, but I'll look it up, and it's the best-selling record of the year."

Bonkers - a collaboration with US dance producer Arman Van Helden-was released through the rapper's Dirtee Stank label, and sold 114,165 copies during the first week of its UK release.

"Fans feel good about the track's pop hooks," the singer said, but denied that the song was a real departure from the underground grime records that first brought him to critical attention in 2003.

"Everything is a departure from stuff I have done previously," he said. "If you look at it, there's no song that sounds the same as anything else. I mean to go on as I started.

"I'm always trying to move forward, first and foremost, I just try to capture what's good at the time - that's pretty much it.

"I'm not trying to be a dance MC - I just knew I could rap over a dance track, so I did it.

"I have noticed that a lot of people can relate to it. The way people sing the lyrics back to me in the crowd, it's like: 'Yes - this is my song'. They feel good about it," he said.

Dizzee Rascal, real name Dylan Mills, will see his fourth UK album, Tongue N Cheek released in September, and promised his latest offering would be banging.

"There is different stuff on there," he explained. "It's got Hip Hop influences, soul influences, and obviously dance music influences - it's quite dance music orientated. I don't want to say too much, I don't want to give away too much. It's going to be banging.

"Some of the tracks are really good. I feel like I have outdone myself. I feel like I have done what I always wanted to do."