Wiley at Manchester Academy: Review

You could forgive the crowd for the chorus of boos that came before Wiley came on stage.

By Manchester's Finest | Last updated 2 March 2018

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Whoever was in charge of the playlist in-between sets got it so extraordinarily wrong it was actually hilarious. We’re waiting for the godfather of grime, purveyor of the ‘eski’ beat, and the DJ was playing S Club 7 and Anastasia. Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly in keeping with the main event.

When the Wiley Kat makes his appearance on stage, it becomes so drastically obvious why he is so huge in so many circles. His flow is absolutely unparalleled, with an unwavering energy to match, which the crowd completely feed off.

In terms of tunes, we were treated to hit after hit, and that was even before he banged out ‘Wearing My Rolex’! ‘On A Level’ managed to effectively send everyone into a frenzy, as did ‘Back With A Banger’ and several nods to ‘Too Many Man’ throughout the set, as well as mentions of ‘Boy Better Know’.

His new stuff from his latest album ‘Godfather’ went down as though they were from his debut, proving that he is 100% right that he moves with the times. ‘I Call The Shots’ in particular had people bouncing off the walls.

Wiley well and truly is the master of his craft and I might go as far as to say that he’ll never go out of style, he’s just far too important to grime in general.

One thing that might have had mixed reviews was that he likes to bring local MC’s on stage and give them a couple of songs in his set, which as brilliant and energetic as they were, I was really only there for Eski Boy.

Overall, Wiley is not one to be missed!