Evolve Or Be Extinct
It's arguable that even Wiley can't remember every track he's released in the past half-decade, but the grime godfather's new LP is one you should play closer attention to.
With the amount of bars Wiley has laid down in his career it’s no surprise that he might be running out of things to say.
After last year’s patchy 100% Publishing, Wiley rebounds with Evolve Or Be Extinct. His eighth album kicks off with the digital skank of Welcome To Zion, a powerful return to basics featuring sparse production and lightning-fast rhymes. The pace ramps up with the title track as Wiley attacks the fevered egos of commercial grime MCs. The four-to-the-floor of Boom Blast follows the Rolex model, with fairly mindless lyrics about 'the feeling' and wanting to 'touch the ceiling', but it is a mercifully brief concession to mainstream appeal, and a smart contrast to the slow-mo electro/rave of I'm A Weirdo.
Surreal and frequently brilliant, London rapper Wiley's eighth album may be his best yet, says <strong>Killian Fox</strong>
The hardest-working man in showbusiness strikes again, and the hit rate is high, reckons <strong>Paul MacInnes</strong>
Bernadette McNulty listens to the sounds of East London past and present in the run-up to the Olympics.
Has grime's crazed king come to terms with his own waywardness? CD review by Joe Muggs