See Clear Now

The Godfather of grime is back on the scene

Richard Kylea Cowie, more known as Wiley on the British scene, grew up in the Eastern part of London. He was involved in the garage music movement and drum-and-base, but mostly credited for being one of the pioneers of the genre called grime. Under grime people usually understand the mixture of garage music, dancehall and hip-hop. Moreover, Wiley still preserves the leadership in this genre, calling himself the Godfather of grime. At first, he became the founding member of the band Roll Deep, in which he was on vocals and produced the tracks, but later started to perform solo. Along with his scenic activity, Wiley produced two lines of clothing. Although the things of the musician were good, in 2007, he announced his retirement from the show-business. However, soon Wiley came back into the musical industry and recorded the disc See Clear Now this year. This long-play was characterized by the performer himself as the commercial grime, as it is obvious that See Clear Now is the mainstream record. Wiley told to the listeners with his considerations that he would like to share his musical experiments to the public via easily-digested pop arrangements and even said he would like to be like Missy Elliott in this sphere. Well, as for innovations and mainstream, one can not help comparing Wiley also to rapper Kanye West, who likes experiments and unexpected collaborations as much.

See Clear Now: the disc, consisting of surprises

After the brief overture Ryder Intro (Produced By Davinche), the musician placed his biggest hit single Wearing My Rolex (Produced By Bless Beatz), which stroke everyone in the summer of 2008. However, when this grime-meets-electro track, decorated with the savvy basses, comes to the end, the pleasant surprises only begin on this long-play. In the next dancing track I Need To Be (Produced By Jake Gosling), Wiley perfectly combines his rapping with the R&B vocals by Kenna. In the winding hit-tune Summertime (Produced By Jake Gosling), the artist shares to the listeners with his observations over the ways of spending the summer vacations. In order to create the atmosphere of this number, Wiley used the sample of the song Digital Love by Daft Punk. It is impossible not to compare immediately this hit to Stronger by Kanye West, also built around the Daft Punk’s sample! The single Cash In My Pocket (Feat. Daniel Merriweather) (Produced By Mark Ronson), on which Wiley made a duet with Daniel Merriweather, is arranged with the brass wind instruments, while producing was fulfilled by Mark Ronson - the song was simply destined to become a hit - just listen to this song to understand why. The wonderful piano rap ballad 5AM (Feat. Scorcher) (Produced By Jake Gosling) is dedicated to the workers that are not noticed by anyone, but they play an extremely important role in the everyday life of the society – cleaners, security guards and others. The following track Step By Step (Feat. Hot Chip) (Produced By Hot Chip) is one of the most striking songs on the disc – it could enter some soundtrack for a gloomy cyber-punk picture. This mystically dark melody is followed by the bright disco composition Turn It Up (Produced By Arthur Baker For AB Productions).

A successful commercial move by Wiley

When Wiley decided to popularize grime, he was absolutely right to choose mainstream. Although the musician himself later strongly criticized the disc and called for the fans not to buy it, while the content of See Clear Now one can hardly call the pure grime, this long-play is no ways the disappointment. This creation by the famous London MC and producer features amusing electro-hip-hop track, which will both propel Wiley’s career and raise the interest to his adored genre. The full-length contains mostly winding, sunny tunes, which only slightly remind us of Wiley’s earlier attempts, but they will bright great satisfaction to his devoted fans. It is obvious that See Clear Now was planned primarily as the commercial act, and its main target was to enlarge Wiley’s auditory. No doubt, this aim would be successfully achieved, especially taking in consideration the glory of the hit Wearing My Rolex (Produced By Bless Beatz). The daring and capturing collaborations once again proved to the listeners that this artist is a big lover of risky experiments and eccentric decisions. One of the undoubted merits of the record See Clear Now is the eclectic approach to work – absolutely different genres combine with each other or change each other and sound in harmony, which is the result of the flawless producers’ work. Whatever Wiley himself thinks of his last achievement See Clear Now, the disc is superb.