Evolve Or Be Extinct

As usual, this U.K. rapper refuses to be confined by expectations as he messes with the grime aesthetic he helped create more than a decade ago. Wiley’s wordflow surges across diverse sonic terrain, touching on jittery jazz rhythms (“Miss You”), shivery electronica (“Scar”), and percolating Pac Man beats (“I’m Skanking”). When he chooses, he can deliver party anthems without losing his oddball panache, as “Boom Blast” shows. Most importantly, Wiley hasn’t lost his sense of humor after years in the trenches of the music-biz wars. Personal manifestos like “Money Man” and “I’m a Weirdo” reassert his stylistic links with such zany ska toasters as Sir Lord Comic. The droll, spoken-word skit “Customs” both plays for laughs and sets up the scathing dance floor track “Immigration.” Whether he’s going for the jugular (as in the rapid-fire “Welcome to Zion”) or the funny bone, Wiley revels in his own foibles and excesses without apology. Evolve or Be Extinct is an act of defiance against stale music modes, grime included.