London MC Wiley Fights For Grime In “Chasing The Art”
“Scene went quiet for a while, but now we’re headed in the right direction.”
It's rare that a genre gets a decade's worth of perspective to parse. Grime has been banging loud again this year after its first breakout around 2005, when Wiley was of the names to know, alongside pioneers like Dizzee Rascal and Skepta. Today Wiley, one of the UK genre's most formative artists, takes stock. Even though I didn't get paid any money for my first shows/ in music I've got a name that the whole world knows, he spits on "Chasing The Art," while London street murals whiz by. It's an aspiration new single about putting creation over commerce: a debate that's gripping Grime today. "I watched a Kevin Hart interview, then I made the song," Wiley tells FADER. "He basically said, when you pop off, you can go and chase all the industry money, and then you get to a certain age, you start chasing the art." The single's produced by The Heavytrackerz, and will be available May 25th on Island Records.