Wiley, the pioneer, the founding father, the maverick, the relentless innovator, releases his brand new (and possibly last) album. A blazing return to the experimental crucible of the East London music known as grime, 'Playtime Is Over' offers everything that is most brutal, cutting edge, funny, clever, terrifying and moving about the sound and the world which created it.
Over the course of 15 tracks, Wiley boasts of his pre-eminence, tells stories of his life and background, reveals a sensitive side that won't surprise anyone who has met him, bigs up Bow and, in general, splatters his life and thoughts and feelings over beats in a way which hasn't been bettered in the short but incident-packed history of a scene whose mainstream acceptance is barely five years old.
The majority of the music on 'Playtime Is Over' is produced by the man himself, with occasional assistance from the likes of JME ('No Qualms') and Maniac (the aural assault of 'Bow E3'.) The handful of guest MCs and vocalists on the album were equally carefully selected; one-time rival and rising star Scorcher lends his musical flow to 'Fly Boy', Jukie Mundo's ultra-tight delivery rails over 'Stars' and the dulcet tones of Rachel provides the chorus to 'Come Lay With Me'.
Rather than the "pop" experiments that were forced on Wiley while producing Roll Deep's 'In At The Deep End', here he revels in his ability to weld together screeching keyboards, elastic bass drops and pounding beats into instantly catchy, hugely more-ish bursts of noise. Right from the opening bars of '50/50' you know you're in for a treat and it doesn't let up through his tales of trouble in South West London ('Slippin'), jokes about the Grime scene's internal rivalries ('Getalong Gang'), or his exhortations for the scene around him to realise it's time to get serious ('Playtime's Over'). In between, Wiley also shows himself the master of a different type of approach, on a heartfelt and funny dedication to his newborn daughter ('Baby Girl') or when reaching out to his sometime prodigy and fellow Bow boy, Dizzee Rascal ('Letter 2 Dizzee').
|
Track
Listing |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
01. 50/50
02. Bow E3
03. Slippin'
04. Flyboy
05. Baby Girl
06. Gangsters
07. Stars
08. Letter 2 Dizzee
09. No Qualms
10. Johnny Was A Bad Boy
11. Nothing About Me
12. Come Lay With Me
13. Getalong Gang
14. Eski-Boy
15. Playtime's Over
16. Where's Wiley? |
|
|
