Think you're busy? Then get ready to break into a cold sweat. British MC Wiley has released nine albums and almost as many mixtapes in the past nine years, and in the past 12 months has churned out an impressive three albums, an EP and a collection of instrumentals.
You
could accuse the founding member of grime collective Roll Deep of favouring quantity over quality - until you hear Evolve or be Extinct, a bizarrely brilliant double album of bonkers electro-rap that skips between styles like a malfunctioning jukebox.
"I'm a weirdo, but I'm not a bipolar," Wiley offers as an explanation on album highlight Weirdo, a rave-rap masterpiece that strings together random rhymes about boiled eggs and toasters over inventively skittery and synthy beats.
Wiley favours tales about modern urban life over US rap-style braggadocio, and his charismatic everyman rhymes help keep the constantly changing styles cohesive, but it's the crazier moments that really stand out. There's the indecipherable alien-sounding chorus on the aggressive grime of Link Up, 80s dance anthem Boom Blast, and the Dizzee Rascal brazenness of Scar. Best of all is the beautifully minimalist This is Just an Album, a song which has hardly any beat at all - just a series of futuristic bleeps and whistles over which Wiley discusses his brutal work ethic. And he admits he's not done yet. He's already working on his next album.
Stars: 4/5
Verdict: Overworked British grime MC delivers his best yet on third album in a year
