Attention all Wiley fans!

I don't owe you nothing, you don't owe me either
I got a style that's golden like a retriever
I time travel, make you a believer
yeah I'm a big achiever
MCs pulling on my arm like a lever
I don't wanna moan like a diva
but it's me coming through the speakers
loud and clear, I smoke the reefer
zoning out, Wiz Khalifa
if I was a mutant, I would have a power that came up high on the metre
I got flows fast like a cheetah
to my fans that know, I see ya
back in the day when I started I had a heart in my chest, cold like a freezer

<3

I'm awake now, reading the Sun newspaper
25p, I'm a saver
might be 20 on another day
face getting hairy, send for the shaver
used to go to the park, Sefton
had my Salford Quays but I left 'em
got 'em back now, I got newer intentions
see far, looking at my pension
I'm awake, still, tourer
my new haircut's sharp like a Bora
tell the barber watch my hairliiiiiine -
so it don't recede faster
got my mind working harder
gotta do it for the Gucc, for the Prada
call that money down the drain, but that's another saga

I get put to the test like I'm not already charting
wanna be credible, Dr Marten
you don't see me skylarking
but I'm still Regents Parking
today my work needs marking
I wanna get a higher grade now, start laughing
fly past 'em, I'm a dog barking
I'm quite visible like a side parting
stop, tell me who's starting trouble?
cuz I will get dark on the double
I can string along a lyric, I ain't getting in a muddle
I'm on the road like a puddle
south to the north terminal, shuttle
I connect east to south, Blackwall Tunnel
see me on the road, I bubble

so wiley has a new mixtape with whooo ( o o o o o ) kid( d d d d d) hosted by.... ashley cole WTF!?

rofl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_yglKv2ViI

Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole
Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole
Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole
Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole
Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole
Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole
Wiley ft. Giggs & Ashley Cole

NUMBER ONE

love the song too

http://thegrimereport.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/wiley-its-all-fun-games-till-vol1-2012.html

^very dope mixtape

I find his level of output kind of exhausting these days but Heatwave is terrific. And totally not what I would have expected the first Wiley number one to sound like.

"heatwave" is mad goofy to me, and not in a tinie tempah-ish way that kinda works. it's just structured weirdly.... it's like there are two choruses, but neither are particularly that great. the girl's part is pretty corny imo.

happy for him tho

i will now listen to "if you're going out" for the next two hours

The girl's part is also a rip-off of Madonna's "Erotica."

Standard 2012 chart fare; sounds like a million other records, Wiley's lyrical outlook unchanged from a decade ago, i.e. Young Businessman Of The Year application form.

I'M OUT OF THE YARD, I'M NEVER INSIDE

What other chart pop in 2012 has anything like that string sample? I would like to hear it if it exists.

the erotica steal makes it even better, takes some genius to recast that chilly, blank song as a feelgood summer jam

dunno why one would choose Ms D as one's stage name if one is not actually Ms Dynamite

anony-motive is iirc an old finney coinage that best describes the magic appeal of the phantom ms d

marcello's clueless outlook unchanged from a decade ago

I'm sort of thinking it's probably not a conscious Erotica steal.

"heatwave" is mad goofy to me, and not in a tinie tempah-ish way that kinda works. it's just structured weirdly.... it's like there are two choruses, but neither are particularly that great. the girl's part is pretty corny imo.

happy for him tho

― tauheed & cambria (J0rdan S.), Friday, August 10, 2012 1:45 AM Bookmark

^all this

It's All Fun And Games Till Vol. 1 is probably my favourite long-player of the year.

Also, his "Glam Freestyle" is probably my favourite song of the year.

Basically Wiley is running 2012 for me. Don't much care for the number one, but I seem to mostly like the stuff he gives out for free and I guess the guy has to eat, so good on him.

My favourite comedian is Michael McIntyre. I've got his ones on DVD. He's really funny, and he's the most current with his jokes. The life I lead, he sort of knows. He knows about the London Underground, do you know what I mean? He's got the craziest, the best observations.

he threw a hissy fit at itunes and leaked his own album

(which is largely cobblers)

wonder if the mistake he wanted corrected was listing j2k on 'my heart' cos he ain't on there now as far as i can hear

(i'd heard the j2k version on the radio and that tune would have been the pick of the bunch as was but i think they slowed it right down to uselessness to fit french montana on)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0npI8zq_6YU

this is a certified spring jam and far beyond anything on the lp fwiw

i just boggled at "wiley featuring emeli sandé, j2k and french montana" too much to really hear the song

another unguided wiley album drifting listlessly by

you always wonder what his and dizzee's careers would have been like if it was wiley that had cage managing/producing/father figuring

How man of them are there now?

you always wonder what his and dizzee's careers would have been like if it was wiley that had cage managing/producing/father figuring

Even assuming he had the choice, Cage backed the right horse. It's not even that Wiley is mental to the point of being basically uncontrollable, he just doesn't have Dizzee's charm, either on record or off. There's just something about their voices as well, Dizzee can convey so much more. It's not that Wiley hasn't made great records but he'd never hit Dizzee-style beloved pop figure status.

yeah sure it's not a taking sides, i would never dispute dizzee being a rare talent with the edge over his generation, i'm just saying wiley's work has always cried out for an understanding editor when it comes to making that next step

besides it might not be the same charm as dizzee's but he still has more charm than most. much more in fact and certainly enough to be a pop star with

the other side of the question is for all dizzee's outrageous talent would he have ever got this far just by himself the same way his peers have had to? i don't think so

Yeah I mean put him next to I dunno Wretch 32 or someone and the difference is obvious but I'm not sure the man exists who could do that. Crucially none of these other guys see themselves as svengali/mentor figures themselves.

it's not even that cage might have done so much work for dizzee but that the lines of success are so fine that a wise word here a nudge there really can make all the crucial difference

http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/dizzee-rascal-uncaged/049422

"What Dizzee means is: 'It allows a wider remit of artistic expression,'" he jokingly, forcefully clarifies. He looks at me suspiciously: "Who are we talking to here?"

Ten months into this job, and I have never witnessed the words 'Music Week' cause anywhere near such elation. Cage openly guffaws: "Ha! Say what the fuck you like!"

Someone needs to get their act together and just put out that 2CD career retrospective because it'd still be better than the equivalent comp from pretty much anyone else.

A loose-fit turquoise Ralph Lauren shirt brushing over tree trunk torso and beefy belly, he's a boisterous bruiser with a box-clever tongue; a bantersaurus with a Pulitzer in pinpoint put-downs and prickly piss-takes.

Looking forward to his eponymous strip in Viz sometime soon.

I'm going to make the hits, go on TV and make the syncs and that shit. But I want to be able to say shit, cunt, bollocks and all that - talk about obscene stuff. That's what albums are for."

This has nothing to do with what we're talking about I just want to preserve it for when I inevitably need to requote it in the future.

wiley IS a fairly beloved pop figure though - obv not to the extent of dizzee, but tbh i'm not sure how much wiley's persona at its best would translate to mass mass mass stadium appeal anyway. he's not a rabble-rouser or party-starter, he's a slightly grumpy loose cannon. his antics haven't sabotaged his career to anywhere near the extent they should have, and have probably only enhanced his legend (to people who care).

the missed opportunity was someone with wiley's talent taking on the mentoring role to other artists.

I think it's fair to say that a lack of a decent editor (even on a line-by-line basis) has stopped him from ever making a great album. Even the decent ones are met with general indifference.

Tim Finney on the new album: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17772-wiley-the-ascent/

Correctly identifying the Kid-D produced tracks as MVPs, they are gorgeous. 'Humble Pie' ended up as one of my favourite songs of last year. A couple of collabs that didn't make it on the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptTD37klofk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knkt8ZptBpE

tim otm about how half-hearted the EDM choruses are, the tulisa one sounds especially unfinished and grafted clumsily in

surprised at the tracks tim identifies as standouts, they seemed much of a boring muchness with the rest to me - the aggressive posse cuts are the best/most enjoyable but also, yes, what's the point now

Haha, I think "enjoyable but also, yes, what's the point now" is perhaps a broader criticism w/r/t Wiley.

It seemed a bit self-indulgent else I would have explained that my enjoyment of "Humble Pie" and "Broken Thoughts" (I assume they're the "standouts" you're referring to) is basically a derivation of the time I first played a handmade tape sent to me by Luka containing that Dizzee "I like girls, I like sex" tune, pretty much exactly ten years ago now.

nostalgia :(

oh is "humble Pie" the ~reflective~ one? both dizzee and wiley perfected that track with the closers off their respective debuts

"Broken Thoughts" is better IMO. Straight lost girlfriend vibes.

ha, "prissy" has long been my go-to adjective for wiley cat

lol

new album's actually good! despite gudda gudda of all people popping up

"no skylarking" and "badman", all thumbs up

It is pretty good, but there's still the nagging feeling he isn't bringing his A-game here - I wonder if he knows what that sounds like at this stage. Gudda Gudda verse is so unwelcome.

has wiley ever managed to stretch tier one wiley over the course of an lp

treddin' on thin ice and grime wave are as close as it gets probably

success of a wiley album tends to depend on how exciting the beats are, i think - he remains fairly constant

The gap between tier one Wiley and the rest of his work is pronounced though, his best stuff is always fast and pacey and usually grimey, and his limitations as an MC are usually exposed when momentum is withdrawn.

http://ninjatune.net/release/wiley-and-zomby/step-2001/

wiley and zomby collabo. more interesting on paper tbh. its actually a bit boring.

Grim

The celebrity Wiley not only comparing Jewish people to the KKK, but also getting a conspiracy theory in there too.

This is unabashed antisemitism.

Antisemitism is everywhere. It must be called out and eradicated.

Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/mKeB5EDUw3

— alf🌹 (@alfiewm_) July 24, 2020