It was earlier this month that Wiley seemed to announce his retirement when he released what he called his final album ‘The Godfather 3’. But his retirement did not even last until the end of the month as today he has released another album entitled ‘Boasty Gang’. It was released today with no prior announcement and Wiley just surprised fans by tweeting a link to the album on his account.
The album is a long one, including 19 tracks and the run time comes in at a bloated 57 minutes. Given this is the second album of the month, from what I have heard, this album is still as tight as ever from the 41 year-old ‘godfather of grime’. If you are not too au fait with the grime scene in England, Wiley is usually labelled the godfather of grime and has been a stalwart of the scene since it was in its infancy so the godfather label is well deserved.
— Wiley (@WileyCEO) June 22, 2020
Recently Wiley has hit the headlines for another reason but this was his long standing ‘beef’ with UK grime superstar Stormzy. This had spilled over onto Twitter as they were embroiled in an ugly spat that birthed Stormzy releasing two diss tracks aimed at Wiley. But they have said that they have managed to put this all behind them and now have a mutual respect for eachother.
Though this is his first album after his ‘retirement’ you get the feeling Wiley will be an ever present figure within the grime scene. The 41 year old has plenty of petrol left in the tank and the fact that he has managed to release and record two separate albums during a global pandemic shows the work rate from the oft-proclaimed ‘grime scene godfather’.
But considering he has already announced his retirement once, I would also say to maybe not expect too much more in the way of full length album releases. The godfather of grime has paid his dues and is already a certified English rap legend and deserves to down as such. Maybe he should leave Stormzy and other younger rappers alone; a 41 year old rapper going after a younger rapper is not a strong way to go out.
