Reigning on all of ya’.
[Video][Website]
[7.29]
Brad Shoup: The evolution’s in the flow, clearly. Diffused bass, slushy handclaps, a twitchy one-handed riff: this is practically preset stuff. Never easing up over three minutes of 140 bpm, Wiley goes chorus-free and nutrient-rich. At points it sounds like a cribsheet freestyle (I’m pretty sure Dave was in charge of the Chipmunks, for instance), but again, there’s no flagging of energy I associate with extra bars. But is an impressive flow over aural mush really evolution, or just lab work in a controlled environment?
[5]
Iain Mew: The fact that Wiley’s official site is still leading on “Take That”, his “fantastic new single”, says something about how separated out his pop career and the career with songs like this are. He is, indeed, evolving. So “Evolve or Be Extinct” is more technical and isn’t attention grabbing in the same way as “Take That”, but that’s not to say that it isn’t fun. “You forget I’m giant like Haystacks“, sticking in a line ending “orange” just for the challenge, deliberately stilted delivery tying his lines in a knot just before he gets to “tight like an old knot” are all a lot of fun. Only when the silly voices come in at the end does the point scoring overtake the invention to the detriment of the track.
[7]
John Seroff: The spectacular Evolve or Be Extinct album is the product of a mind on a higher plane, featuring the emcee at peak on consistently awesome riddims. The title track is no exception; Wiley gracefully twines around an industrial piston of a beat with all the smoothness of Big Daddy Kane and all the linguistic fluency of Andre 3K. The man is album-after-album consistent, talented and woefully underrated in the states. What I wouldn’t give for Wiley’s caliber to be the target for aspiring US chart rappers; “Evolve” is as sharp as anything I’ve heard in 2012.
[9]
Andrew Ryce: The beat is a little invasive/overblown/annoying, but Wiley sounds pretty fiery here, which is always nice to hear. Reminds me a bit of JME’s “96 Fuckries” in the way he’s just going totally nuts here without much of a chorus. But that beat is too distracting! It turns what should be thrilling verses into monotonous racket. The little pseudo-breakdown though… “Stop thinking of old songs/Move on… Them spitters good but their flow’s not tight like mine like an old knot.” The moment where I remember that he’s Wiley, and fuck what I have to say. Also, is that a Come Fly with me reference at the end?
[7]
Alfred Soto: Intelligible flow, smart enjambments keyed to those canned claps and snaps — no chance of extinction. Docked a notch for the Greek chorus applauding him in the outro.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: What with all these kids and their newfangled dubsteps and funkys and bass musics, it’s nice to sit back, pour a tall one, and unwind with some good old-fashioned grime.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: Wiley’s speed and fluidity here is as impressive as it is infectious. To say nothing of its technical chops, what’s best about “Evolve” is how Wiley keeps the listener interested without using a lifeline — no guest choruses, no novelties, even no instrumental breakdowns. It’s three minutes of one thing done so well it needs no other things to distract from it.
[9]