The philosophers have been asking themselves the wrong question. It isn’t Does God play dice? we should be worrying about, but Does Wiley play snakes and ladders? The answer is, of course, yes. But like everything Wiley does, he doesn’t just play a bit of snakes and ladders, any more than he just raps a bit, or just has the odd minor disagreement, or posts the occasional amusing Tweet. When Wiley plays snakes and ladders he plays it on the cosmic scale, he plays it with his whole career, his whole life.
On “Snakes & Ladders,” Wiley’s fourth album with Big Dada, Wiley reminds us exactly what the Bow-born Godfather of Grime is all about. Innovative, banging beats and fast, scattershot, brilliant rhyming, all held together by a personality that is as compelling, contradictory and charismatic as any in modern music. It’s no exaggeration to say that if Wiley had been born on the other side of the pond, he would be one of the biggest stars in the world, and could achieve it without compromise. Here, though, we are sometimes left wondering what the ladders are in his career and what are the snakes.
And Wiley isn’t just taking Snakes & Ladders to your headphones and speakers, but also on the road. The Snakes & Ladders Tour takes in three dates in three great British cities; London, Birmingham and Manchester.
The new album is Wiley’s best to date, a scorching, future-gazing example of grime at its finest. Wiley is as true to himself live as he is on his records; exuberant, blistering, funny, gobsmackingly good. Get your tickets for these intimate shows before they’re all gone - something Wiley himself might just be, if rumours of his retirement as a solo artist are true. As JME puts it on “From The Outside”: “Wiley is a national treasure.”
Tickets on sale 10am, Friday 10th October here: http://www.gigsandtours.com/tour/wiley