New track from Wiley: “Flying”

by Greg Sheer

Following a dispute with his label Warner Music regarding their treatment of his most recent album, The Ascent, Wiley returned to indy label Big Dada and released the stand-alone single “Flying” earlier this month.

The track marks a frenetic new contribution to the grime style, which he’s largely credited with creating. The style incorporates afrobeat and Caribbean-swung rhythms with British dub mixing, and “Flying” indicates a more aggressive lyrical approach than he’s taken before. The self-confident and even cocky rap might be coming on the heels of a split with his label, who overrode Wiley’s choices and released “Lights On” as the single, to which he tweeted, “My label are doing ‘Lights On’ next but I do not like that so you will not see me in the video.”

As an artist and producer, Wiley’s mark on the British hip hop scene has become indispensable, and a return to the label that gave him his start will afford the musician the artistic control he needs to mark a promising new chapter in an already successful career.