Various Artists: Treddin' On Thin Ice : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

While kids in the U.S. are constantly pummeled by 50 Cent and Lil' Jon tracks, their UK counterparts are bumping a tweaked and twisted strain of bottom-heavy rap called "grime". Less than a year after his protege Dizzee Rascal cracked the States, producer/MC Wiley drops the next wave of grime's U.S. invasion. Wiley wastes no time on the album and forgoes the irritating inclination of American rappers to open their albums with overblown intros. Instead, he jumps into "The Game" where he boasts "I came to the game with no girlfriend/And I'll be leaving the game with your girlfriend." Wiley runs the gamut from the eternal search for the perfect shorty ("Special Girl") to the frustration of having to describe his elusive style ("Wot Do U Call It?"). The real revelation is that he does it all in a unique U.K. Garage-meets-U.S. crunk style over beats that middle America just might not be ready for.