"I provided all the pies" - a thread for Wiley's 'The Godfather'

For quite a bit of the last year I've been trying to work out just what it was that felt wrong or underwhelming about the Skepta album, whether it just came out at the right time or not, it just didn't seem to deserve its immediately canonized, exalted status. I don't begrudge him or anyone else their moment of success, but as a cresting-the-wave album, I dunno if it was the slower tempos or his more heads-down style or what, but it just didn't feel as exciting as it should have.

Listening to this new Wiley album I immediately know why. Someone dutifully starts a thread for every new Wiley album, and they're always good if you isolate the four or five best tracks, or if you squint a bit, or if you overlook a verse here or there. But on this one there's a brief moment of reflection, of surveying the scene on the opening track, and then the intensity barely lets up for a second of the next 16 tracks. MCs cannon into each other like they were always supposed to, Wiley sounds fired up and switched on and like he actually gives a shit, the beats feel genuinely rooted in garage and eskibeat rather than badly translated trap beats. Like, this finally feels like the album he was meant to make all along, the sort of grime album that people should have been releasing from the start, and almost never did.

Cracking Bucky O'Hare reference as well.

i'm not a lager lout but i'm still throwing bars about <3

a hook on one of the biggest bangers dedicated to his pension <3

agree about the skepta album too, think its album-qua-albumness really suffered from the two best and biggest tracks being so old. it was the album the scene needed at that particular time and fulfilled its function very efficiently

and ofc it deserved the mercury, album that worked best as a symbol for a prize that elevates albums to meaningless symbols

It's also that Skepta isn't a particularly engaging personality, he has force and can turn out bangers without even thinking about it but you don't want to get inside his head in the way you did with peak Dizzee and Wiley.

Anyway there's barely a wasted moment on this one, I'm even prepared to allow him the song about his laptop.

Reading recent Wiley interviews you get the distinct sense that he's much prouder of the groundwork he laid for the scene than he is of any of his music, and certainly you get that sense here, except this time round the music is actually good enough to dispel that.

i mean, he got/made some fucking incredible beats for this

it's kind of apt given his song about p money that they both ended up with similar full-throttle approaches to their albums

This is so good. Banger after banger

the sort of grime album that people should have been releasing from the start, and almost never did.

I've only listened to this once but I already feel this is probably the best grime album apart from Boy In Da Corner. Grime artists just aren't very good at albums. Dizzee's went downhill after BIDC. Wiley's other albums have been decent but not great. Konnichiwa and Made In The Manor from last year were OK

Then again, UK urban artists in general aren't very good at albums

It's good to see a whole bunch of MCs and producers from back in the day still killing it on this as well >>>

D Double just launching into 'Follow The Leader' is my favourite moment right now but they're all over the place. Good to hear Flow Dan on something that isn't conspicuous realness for night bus wonks.

Man, this thing just fucking goes. Could lose 'U Were Always' just to keep up the momentum but apart from that it's straight bangers.

So many good hooks on this. Just about every track has a catchy chorus. I don't know if this is Wiley consciously going for mainstream success or what (good luck to him if he is though)

Tons of hooks but musically super pared back, hard and clanky. I like that Wiley and grime are both old enough to produce an o.g. back to basics album. Would be nice if it inspired Dizzee to do the same.

Apparently he went back over a shitload of his old music and decided what worked and what didn't, then put that into action here. His main conclusion appears to have been 'don't let the intensity drop'.

I thought resurrecting U Were Always was lame at first but I couldn't do without it now.

that Ice Kid verse on "On This" is fucking :D :D :D niiiiiice

anyway this whole thing is A1 i might even end up listening to it as a whole album more than my usual couple of initial goes

so this isn't even on the album? it goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr5zkI3J93g

i wasn't really into 'U Were Always' but everything else i'm hearing from the album is great, will definitely have to hear the whole thing.

this was a good profile
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime

this album

the beat on "can't go wrong" my lord

the ramped-up menace of the beats - prancing, taunting, flashing steel - rubs so nicely up against wiley's goofy, grumpy earnestness

none of it's really "funky" exactly but it does remind me of the unflagging density of a fuller/hurricane era funkystepz mixtape

"u were always" such a well-deserved dre-style victory lap

otm re the beats, just full of energy and feel like they're as excited as me about Wiley getting shit done. The earnestness of 'laptop' is amazing.

the beat to the laptop song is UNREAL! i would listen to an instrumental of that on loop forever

maybe i'd just feel like i was listening to a particularly good hessle audio track or something then tho lol.

Finally realised what Wiley's "Macbook Pro Forever...Trust me" gospel reminded me of

https://vine.co/v/erX66WYXx6p

"Can't Go Wrong" replaces "6 in the Morning" as the low brass banger I guess, but you can't have too many of those.

On my first listen I was thinking it is impressive but maybe too much of the same, but now I love it - it is jampacked with bangers right up till the penultimate track. Fucking excellent!

Joe Bloggs is a masterpiece and the lyrics are hilarious:
I stay away from knobs
If there's a known probability
Then I'm gonna tell man, "Probs"

That track is basically a grimy cockney knees-up. Which is obviously a good thing

Friday night work finished this album massive grin so hype BANG BANG

very deserved victory lap

nobody?

on first listen Godfather II maybe not quite as immediately impressive but it's still v good. weirdly my favourite so far is the romance track "Certified"

"we both working every day around the clock / I hit the Spar, she go and get herself pampered"

i literally went TWO stops too far this morning listening to this album lol

it's a v good album, no doubt

More uneven but has higher highs imo. 'Certified' and 'Remember Me' are my faves.

godfather I is a stone-cold classic

can someone versed in godfather II pls suggest a sequenced godfather best-of

I haven't once wanted to go back to Godfather II, it feels like all the consistency and focus drained away and it was roughly on a par with the string of albums he released before that. Wiley's Flip The Table Freestyle is more exciting than anything on this year's album even if it does just amount to a massive tantrum.

Yeah it didn't thrill me like I

boasty is getting pop radio airplay here

i guess Sean Paul on the track helps w that! lol @ "izzit". Wiley coasting on this one obv

It's all kicking off on Twitter. Wiley's been beefing Stormzy, Dot Rotten, Jaykae and AJ Tracey. I blame Dot for sending for everyone last month and getting him all worked up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEkRL0bZa_c

You never cared about grime you just used it
Worse than Ed with your watered down music

Hoping Stormz actually replies

must suck for Wiley that the top search result for his name on Spotify is "Wiley Flow"

He did reply!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73mygGW27LM

A strong effort from Wiley but round one goes to Stormzy for me

oooohhh shiiiiiiiit

I have no preference :-)

(See, if ILM's Dinosaur v Dinosaur Poll Bands would have a beef-off, THEN they'd be interesting)

jeez, wiley dropped his THIRD dis track today responding to Stormzys second one.
dunno how much i like the individual tracks but it's kind of amazing that it's going on for weeks

just cuz Wiley's still dropping tracks, doesn't mean it's still actually on

(I haven't heard the last couple replies I just thought that would sound cool)

The Godfather III is out today, and after one listen I'm going to say it's OK. It's a typical Wiley album in that there's a few decent tracks and quite a lot of filler.

He's also said in the Guardian that he's retiring (not bloody likely) and that he's cool with Stormzy now, which is nice to hear.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/05/wiley-on-his-final-album-i-need-to-not-let-grime-die-on-the-way-out

godfather i not on spotify??

never been on Youtube even iirc

it was definitely on spotify before!