Wiley - The Ascent

It's been a long time coming for this album to finally drop, and I don't think anyone has been anticipating it more than the man himself; Wiley. After years of grinding, beefing, controversial tweeting and spitting it seems like Wiley's recent chart success came from nowhere and blew up as fast as you can say Dizzee Rascal (ha ha)

"But he has sold out though blah blah blah blah"

In a perfect world, I would be living in a penthouse flat in London, working part time between BBC 1 Xtra and SBTV, have a body like Maya Jama, face like Jessica Alba, engaged to Aston Merrygold and Wiley would have got that number 1 with 'Where's My Brother'. 

Sadly this isn't reality. 

Unfortunately the UK music industry isn't grown enough to accept music in any form that doesn't resemble Pop. Wiley for a long, LONG, time stuck to his principles and refused to make any other music than the genre he fathered. He has been in the game long enough to adapt that "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" approach...but being so in love with Grime he hasn't strayed too far from his true sound - his Step freestyles and The Ascent show this. The rest of the album is a contrast to the tracks he has released for the charts. He used the singles to build platform and introduce Eskiboy to his increasing audience.

My 5 tracks with that vibe & are definitely worth a listen: Lights On, Skillzone, Ninja, Tomorrow and My Heart. 

My Heart, bearing in mind it features Emeli Sande, isn't even the slowest song on the album *gasp* - for me this shows that the album isn't what your expecting. You probably doubted the album and thought it would follow the same pattern as his singles but after listening to the album, you feel like a tool for doubting his loyalty to his roots. My favourite track Skillzone backs up my point nicely; a load of underground's finest (Ghetts, Double S, Frisco and Griminal to name a few) taking in turn to spit a bit of heaaaat ona the high tempo beaaaat - a formula that can produce nothing but a pure example of a Grime track.

don't watch the paint skills b!

If I'm truly honest, some of his Step freestyles have excited me more than a couple of these album tracks which are a little boring, but you can't have your cake and eat it too (summer is coming and you have to keep that body on point yo!). HOWEVERRRRR the more I look at the tracklisting/features and of course the more I actually listen to the tracks, the more I appreciate what Wiley has produced. He balanced commercial with his roots without compromising too much at all. No one is saying Wiley is best lyrically or has the meanest flow but he essentially is grime. It's safe to say he has kept it as real as possible with this album, from the music, to the attributions in the booklet.

P.S If you're gonna get it, which you should, get the Deluxe iTunes version and watch the 8 minute documentary that comes with it because it's interesting and you may aswell:) https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-ascent-deluxe/id611380645

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Blackout - Wretch 32 ft Shakka (prod. Knox Brown)

Friday night and all I see over twitter is the date 4/3/13. Now be being the cat the curiosity killed and a big fan of Mr Wretch 32 I was hype hype hype at the thought of new music especially from the new album he’s going to drop this year. So come 8pm I was sat with my laptop listening to Mista Jam’s show. I even missed the start of Eastenders for this so you know it got real.

Evolution is the key word. You’ll hear the intro and think “is this going to be another rapper spitting over a dance beat?”. Well if you thought that: 

1) shame on you

2) I bet your ears weren’t prepared for that.

 If I asked you to name 1 track that Blackout sounded like, even with the combined musical repertoire of every DJ in this whole wide world, you wouldn’t be able to. This is something different to any song that has graced our ears – and note I used the word “graced” implying that different isn’t just good but MAD good.

The beat for me is the most significant part of this track, and is the work of Knox Brown, part of the Renowned Collective. Often I feel producer’s input to a track is overlooked but with his work, it’s hard to ignore what he has created – not made, created. It’s pretty hard to describe what he has done with the beat, but I love that. It doesn’t stop surprising you and as well as keeping you intrigued to the track, it transports you somewhere else. Then we have Shakka. Now Shakka is an artist I hadn’t come across before but this is a perfect example of the hidden talent the UK has been hiding for a too too too long. His vocals are on point. Clean. Subtle. Powerful. I’ve known about him for 5 minutes but I am actually ecstatic (yeah that happy!) that Wretch has given him this platform because his voice breathes “gifted”. Wretch has been doing his thing for years now but never fades. The track just reminds you why you, and even gives you more reason to, love Wretch. He has kept it real and while taking a risk and going down a different lane he hasn’t strayed too far from the road on which he started – and this is why it works so beautifully. Evolved sound – Check. Lyrics that can’t be touched, just felt – Check. Mention of his beloved Disarano – Check. Heartist.

The 3 of them have done what music is made to do, but only few can actually carry out: produced a fresh, hot, new vibe that takes you somewhere – I don’t know where, but I don’t care. Now just wheel that yo!

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