- Tue, 2011-05-31 16:51
Widely credited as the man who invented grime, Wiley is also the scene’s most controversial and outspoken figure. Aside from getting drawn into wars of words with just about every other emcee around, over the last few years he seems to have been determined to sink his own ship by spatting with labels, leaking all his tunes for free, and alienating his fanbase by making as much pop music as he’s made grime. So when he announced at the tail end of last year that he would be releasing not one but two albums in 2011 – one ‘authentic Wiley,’ one a ‘UK chart album’ – there was an almost universal response of ‘we’ll believe it when we see it.’
But the first of those two albums has indeed arrived. Going by the name 100% Publishing, grime fans will be pleased to hear it’s the one that’s being billed as ‘authentic Wiley.’ Better still; for the most part that’s exactly what it is. The album is called 100% Publishing because Wiley is responsible for (almost) everything on it, having written and recorded every beat as well as all the rhymes. With the desire to prove that he still deserves to be known as the godfather of grime, and with no collaborators to dilute his vision, Wiley seems to have regained the hunger and vision that has perhaps eluded him of late. The result is an album that – with a few exceptions – is packed with the classic combination of high-energy, post-garage beats and strong bass-lines, but that sounds effortlessly fresh despite staying true to the well-established grime formula.
Boom Boom Da Na and 100% Publishing come closest to re-visiting the sound of Wiley’s early material. The former features cold synths that tumble through a twisted circus theme towards a simple but heavy verse of thick bass and an echoing beat, while the latter sees a more hyped synth-line snake through bass frequencies before climbing to higher pitch and back down again. Numbers In Action is similarly minimal, though with a distinct personality derived from its muted bass and high-pitched zapping sounds.
Many of the tracks go for a fuller sound. Wise Man And His Words supplements a treacly bass line and rapid, gun-shot snare with a sample of the piano theme from Donnie Darko, while One Hit Wonder throws in some slick, almost hip hop treble synths on its chorus. Indeed, slick synths make quite a few appearances, with tracks like Your Intuition, Up There and To Be Continued making heavy use of them. Don’t worry though; these are subtle colourations rather than the brash rave synths of Wearing My Rolex, and they are firmly attached to grime beats rather than four-to-the-floor bass-drums. There are a handful of dud moments though. Talk About Life, Yonge Street (1178 Miles Long) and Pink Lady see the pace slow, the flow dropping to half-speed and the vibe heading toward hip hop or r&b territory, and all three seem out of place compared to the hunger and energy on display elsewhere.
Lyrically Wiley is on fine form. There is the usual confident self-reverence – “I’m one of the greatest, but my sound is fresh like I’m one of the latest” – as well as some typically bizarre moments – “I’m eating so much food right now I need a double freezer” – but above all Wiley seems to be reflecting upon his place in the game. The conclusion that he appears to come to is that his relationship with grime is as deep as ever, but that his relationship to the grime scene is harder to define. He knows things have moved on – “I can never stop change; I’d rather accept it. The new wave is here and I respect it” – but he still feels he has a massive part to play in pushing the music forward – “nobody knows if it’s going to work overseas, but you wait ‘til I try.”
100% Publishing is by no means perfect, but its combination of the fundamentals of grime with forward-thinking song-writing and production has made for a collection of tracks that sound both classic and novel at the same time. After a turbulent few years, this album feels like a return to form for Wiley.
