Wiley, tour review: Godfather of grime turns in a killer show

This celebratory show rocked, literally, writes Matilda Egere-Cooper
Riding high: Wiley at the Roundhouse, where he was joined by acts including Skepta, JME and Stormzy
Steve Gillett/Livepix
Matilda Egere-Cooper10 February 2017

It’s only taken Richard “Wiley” Cowie 11 albums and countless mixtapes to finally flaunt his status as the Godfather, the name of the 38-year-old veteran’s latest album and a simple reminder that he did, in fact, create grime music.

Still, he is hardly a narcissist. He has always sought to share his hometown glory with various protégés and comrades, many of whom are on his new project and were surprise guests at this leg of his album’s promo tour.

Wiley launched his celebratory show with an intoxicating medley of new material, but it wasn’t long before he was trading hypersonic rhymes with grime buddies such as Chipmunk, JME and Ghetts. Of course, Mercury prize-winner Skepta was there and he performed hip-hop slow jam U Were Always Part 2, later calling Wiley “my big brother”. Before that, DJ Julie Adenuga, Skepta’s sister, presented the rapper with an award for being named the UK’s greatest MC by the Vice music channel Noisey.

But once the back-patting was out of the way, the show rocked, literally. The heaviest moshing was reserved for Stormzy — who performed his new single Big For Your Boots and Shut Up — and later Solo 45, an MC from the Boy Better Know collective whose chilling Feed Em To The Lions sounded like a genuine command. You couldn’t fault Wiley on the rare moments he carried the stage by himself either, whether he was viciously rapping about his journey on Speakerbox, throwing back to the glorious Gangsters or drawing laughs at the end when he gave a shout out to the “times I never turned up” to shows. “Thank you for showing love for all these years,” he said. “I was going through some shit, cut me some slack.” Off the back of such a killer performance, that shouldn’t be too hard.

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