Godfather : [Review]

This is my first post of 2017 and I’m happy that its a review of the highly anticipated Godfather by Wiley. I waited up until midnight last night to listen to the album for the first time and I have listened to it few times through now and have developed my opinion of the project. “Godfather”, a term Wiley is now happy with, is reportedly going to be his last album and lets see if its one of his best. Begin the review:

Usually I work through Album’s track by track but Im going to go through it a bit differently this time. Firstly I’ll start with the singles he released before the album drop as I heard these first. Starting with ‘Bring Them all/Holy Grime’ featuring Devlin. When I saw that Devlin was featured I knew this would be an interesting track due to the past confrentations Devlin and Wiley have had. [If not check out my previous Blog]. Both seem to have overcome the past feelings with Wiley proclaiming Devlin as a “Grime Treasure” which is a statement I agree with. The next single is probably my favourite of the ones released, firstly due to Skepta’s monologue at the beginning and end really showing the mind set everyone in the scene is in at the moment proving how healthy it is. Secondly the instrumental is one of the best grimiest beats I’ve heard, it really reminds me of early Eskibeat and so I think is a perfect addition to the album. Big up @muckybeats on the production. Can’t go wrong is the next single and to be honest I cant think of much to say about it other than its a good track, catchy hook and a solid beat, gets a thumbs up! The final single is “U Were Always Pt.2” featuring Skepta and Belly. It definitely  has a different vibe to most of the album, it sort of reminded me of “Ladies Hit Squad” on Konnichiwa, not my favourite track on the album but its nice to see Wiley exercising different styles.

Now lets go through some of the tracks that caught my attention which weren’t released as singles. Firstly ‘Birds n Bars’, I would recommend this as a song to anyone new to grime that doesn’t really fully understand the genre. The first half again reminds me of early 2000’s beats with loads of references to the British scene. Then the second half shows that every grime song isn’t just about being as hype as possible, demonstrating a more calm sense to the genre. ‘Joe Bloggs’ is the next track that really stood out, firstly due to hits catchy hook but mainly due to the fact that each feature goes in. Both D Double E and Footsie deliver, President T’s flow is really like no other as he demonstrates that on this verse, one of the scenes all time best! Next up ‘Bang’ featuring Ghetts, first thing I noticed that the beat sounded similar to Jammer – ‘Murkleman’ but anyway Ghetts always brings energy whenever he features and this is no exception. Another very good track is ‘On this’, both Chip and Ice Kid feature so it brings back memories of that Tim Westwood freestyle, obviously time has now moved on but I can definitely say the talent is still there, Chip’s wordplay on this track is something to listen into. Now the waviest track on the record is ‘Lucid’ in my opinion, probably the best hook of the album and overall probably one of my favourite tracks. Finally one I have to mention is the ‘P Money remix’ featuring of course P Money. I really liked the original and it’s weird but I understand Wiley’s description of P Money’s verses saying it’s as if he’s doing karate! Delivery is on point and I think the remix is better than the original, it just makes sense to have him on the track!

Overall I really enjoyed the whole album, it’s really easy to get disappointed with projects that have such a high expectations but it really lives up to the hype. As I’ve mentioned you can really here some old school eskibeat rhythms in there but its also very modern grime in a sense. Wiley definitely deserves the title of the Godfather of Grime.

Overall Rating – 8.7