wiley @ club 601, st andrews

Listen to a Wiley classic such as Wearing My Rolex and you probably wouldn’t sound any alarms at the idea of the popular grime artist coming to St. Andrews, as he did last weekend. Many of Wiley’s tracks are heavily influenced by early house and UK garage, giving them a radio-appropriate feeling in today’s soundscape. Some tracks are darker than others, however, and those which exhibit heavier drum and bass influences create a downtempo beat perfect for mosh-pit lovers. Songs like P-Money may give a better idea of just how the artists’ performance this Friday could have gone so wrong.

Following Wiley’s performance the general consensus on the streets of St. Andrews was that Wiley was not just bad, but laughably horrendous. He marched on stage (rumors suggest that he didn’t march willingly – it took some persistent coaxing and persuading from the production team behind the scenes) and proceeded to throw out expletives insulting the general St. Andrews population, and maybe even pissed on a few unlucky audience members? He exited after establishing his distaste for the crowd, returned moments later only to continue on into the night with some clear evidence of lip syncing. Such behavior, for obvious reasons, screamed of the influence of drugs and alcohol – and maybe this is a fair assumption.

Although Wiley’s performance need not be defended as good nor his behavior as really acceptable, as critically engaged audience members (our own intoxicated brain states aside) we have a responsibility to take into consideration the lack of diversity within our student population and how this might have had a negative impact on the energy of Wiley’s stage presence. Furthermore, grime and rap artists are too frequently reduced to the “too high to remember their own lyrics” archetype, bound up with racist stereotypes related to drug use in the music industry. We also need to remember that there is scientific evidence for phenomena such as “stereotype threat,” where individuals are more likely to conform to a stereotype once reminded that they fit a certain typecast. Some questionable attire from audience members, borderline appropriating black music culture in the UK, and the presence of drugs would certainly be enough to set any respected grime artist on edge.