'There's No Way On Earth You Can Hear Me And Say That You Don't Rate Man'

I'm painfully aware that Wiley has been the topic of the day for probably too many days, so surely one more won't hurt before I have a little rest and write about something else. On the other hand, there is interest in See Clear Now from places because I've been getting a ridiculous amount of hits recently. I thought I didn't care about that sort of thing but, apparently, it appears I do.



With it being Monday yesterday Logan Sama was on the radio, even though he's not next week. The tears were about to flow but he promised to do an old-school grime mix instead, so it's all good. For once I actually stayed up for the whole two hour grime extravagaza and, despite no set, the show was decent, which I can only put down to the host's inimitable style and slick radio broadcasting skills. Logan still wasn't finished, putting a caller's number on the internet after the show for saying racist things. Humble pie for the people who doubted the man's cameo appearance on Roll Deep's Racist People.

The show kicked off to a flippant start, with Logan saying that Wiley had a new album out, so 'might as well play some tracks'.

Fair enough.

I was eagerly waiting for the new offerings, until I was interrupted with a message from one of grime's few entrepeneurs, the internet tycoon Hij. Inexplicitly, Hij decided that it was no longer appropriate for me to be a 'Super Shower Moderator' on the grimeforum. Whether the power has gone to his head or not, I painfully accepted the decision against the backdrop of the new Wiley track Can't Stop Thinking which, bar for some elements of the production, was comprehensively deadout. The song has now been inherited with bad connotations, a personal soundtrack of failure, and the realisation that I've been dropped back into the pit of forum runts.

*waves at grimeforum users*

Generally though, the music wasn't conventional pop-music. It was quite bizarre really, and I don't know what to make of it. It wasn't straight pie which is what some may have expected, and there is barring rather than sparse, minimalistic vocals that have little to no worth. I might buy See Clear Now just out of intrigue. Intentional or not, intrigue isn't a bad marketing ploy.

Wiley - See Clear Now


The album being released on Asylum is a one-off, with Wiley leaving and going independent on Eskibeat Recordings. I said a while back what I thought about the label, but at least it has some releases now, if not much else.



Ice Kid was supposedly a member but, after finally making a track, it appears that he's 'Eskibeat Recordings... Director'. Really, you can't get away from why. Wiley can do what he wants, but the idea of giving something to someone for nothing makes no sense whatsoever. The camp has to make movements regardless for the title to mean anything so, as an Ice Kid fan, hopefully being the director of Eskibeat Recordings will get him out of bed in the morning to make some tunes.

The 'I'll melt ya igloo so retire' talk is over. Everyone's happy. They see clear now.

'Heard Some Man Wanna Take My Style'

What’s going on with ‘Eskibeat Recordings’? It all looked so promising. The recruitment of the best young MCs, top producers still learning their craft, Wiley securing his legacy when the inevitable time comes.

MCs joined, spat bars in the middle of the road for an esteemed video podcast, and then left. Currently, ‘Eskibeat’ is a byword for confusion; a label that seemingly has no MCs in a scene that is held together by their dominance, but does have a very good (yet obsolete) graphic designer, and a talented DJ who has no-one to wheel tunes for. The label had signs of artificialness; North, East, South, and West all represented, one MC from each area of London to fully encapsulate grime’s hub and reign in the best super-group since…

However, there have been signs of moves to revitalise Eskibeat recently, which is welcome, since it gives some slight opportunity try and make sense of things. The first move was to sell T-Shirts with ‘Eskibeat’ on them, but in a ‘Run DMC’ style in an attempt to garner some sort of retro-credibility. Apparently, no-one wants retro-credibility for £25, so the next move involved Wiley asking RWD Forum whether he should embark on an album project with Eskibeat.


*EDIT* Now £19.99!

Since when have kings been democratic? You can’t blame Richard for kicking up a bit of hype, but it seems as if the saga of Eskibeat Recordings just needs to be put to an end. Does anyone actually know who is in Eskibeat? Does anyone actually know if Wiley actually knows who is in Eskibeat? The MCs have claimed they have nothing to do with the label anymore, and even if they did Little Dee has commitments with OGs’ second mixtape in addition to Roll Deep work, Chipmunk has an album due to drop, and Ice Kid… well, I don’t even know, perhaps some Hoodstars work, but having a dislike for someone who has tried to help further your career implies you can’t do much else to establish some sort of musical relationship.

It all seems like a bit of a failure, even if, in a sense, Eskibeat has worked from the perspective of production, with Bless Beats providing the beat for ‘Wearing My Rolex’ and the first stepping stone to a nice little deal with Atlantic Records. Even if the song doesn’t sound anything like ‘Eski’.


Wiley couldn't be persuaded to wear an Eskibeat Recordings tee

I’m not too cynical very often, but I can’t see any sort of Eskibeat project happening, at least not for a while. As a grime fan, I don’t think I would be alone in preferring a good Little Dee mixtape, in addition to good features on Roll Deep and Organised Grime projects, a decent debut album from Chipmunk, and really for Ice Kid just to put some work in. Oh, and for ‘Grime Wave’ and ‘Race Against Time’ to deliver. If you don’t mind Will. Safe.