It’s hard to imagine now but Wiley was once the great hope of UK grime, arguably the only non-US hip-hop derivative to ever gain credibility on the world stage.
From a start rhyming on the legendary Rinse FM alongside Tinchy and Dizee, Wiley had a string of UK number ones in the mid-naughties that looked all set to propel him to international stardom.
However whilst his East London partners in crime have gone on to conquer the world, headlining festivals and breaking the United States, Wiley’s idiosyncrasies have left him struggling for international relevancy.
Latest album The Ascent is an attempt to reclaim his crowd, and altogether it’s not a bad attempt. While the production leans more towards generic EDM beats than its predecessors, the sheer force of delivery and the array of guest stars marks this out as more than pure chart-bothering nonsense.
Roping in underground heavyweights like Kano and Lethal Bizzle for the blistering ‘First Class’ is inspired. Turning a rant against the inequalities of international air travel into a bass-led banger more confrontational than self-indulgent.
“Reload” (featuring Chip and Ms D) takes a twisted synth line that steers just the right side of cheese and creates a bumpy sing along ditty that tempers anger with the catchy appeal of a daytime radio hit.
The standout here is the world-conquering “Heatwave”, a UK number one from earlier this year and rightly so. If anything is going to rip urban music away from its Guetta aping excesses, this might just be it.
More than anything contemporary black music was always supposed to look to the future, and whilst it seems the world is still in uplifting party anthem mode this is classy and streetwise rather than the lowest dominator VIP fodder still clogging up the charts.
Wiley’s is always going to be a career of varied eccentricities and we should applaud him for it. However with The Ascent he may have managed to straddle the middle ground with just enough credibility to reclaim his rightful place at the top of the hip-hop heap.
