Evolve or Be Extinct

In late 2011, Wiley dropped the very good 100% Publishing, and less than six months later, he topped it with the excellent Evolve or Be Extinct. The British rapper continues to slowly kill the child he helped create -- grime -- by expanding its boundaries and rethinking its parameters to the point that the term is slowly ceasing to have much real meaning. His roots still show, of course: the sharp, double-time rapping on "The Door to Zion" and the title track are juxtaposed with dark, lurching beats that will be comforting to anyone adept with the genre. But a couple of these tracks swing in a way that is quite unusual: "I'm a Weirdo" is uniquely funky and jazzy (and offers the timeless couplet "I'm a weirdo/But I'm not a bipolar") and "Miss You" incorporates a soca feel that also comes from out of left field. "Link Up" and "Boom Blast" are the tracks slated for release as singles, but while both are excellent, "Money Man" could turn out to be the break-out hit. The album sags a bit in the middle, with the rhythmically blocky "Scar" and the rather self-indulgent "Can I Have a Taxi Please?," and the extended "Customs" sketch (in which our hero's urine is tested during a drug search in the airport) seems a bit pointless until you realize that it leads into the excellent "Immigration," another of the album's high points. Warts and all, this is one of the strongest albums in Wiley's already impressive catalog. ~ Rick Anderson