The Godfather 3

The Godfather 3 is the 13th studio album by grime pioneer Wiley. The official release date changed many times prior to release, before finally settling on 5 June 2020. Wiley stated, following the album’s release, that it would be his last grime album (shortly after, on 22 June, Wiley released a dancehall album). “Godfather 3” is an ode to grime music – possibly final goodbye to a genre that Wiley helped birth and grow. The project sees an assortment of new-generation MC’s come through to showcase themselves, accompanied by a variety of old-school sounding production.

Originally, it was stated on an Instagram post that it would be released May 1st 2019. The tracklist also saw regular changes prior to release.

Wiley first revealed the album cover on Instagram on August 17th 2018, where he described the album as a “21 Track Grime Project”.

Supposedly, Wiley wanted to release the project earlier than he did, but he was “rudely interrupted” as he stated in a post on Instagram that was then deleted. Likely to the album cover post, the Instagram picture cannot be found but the automatic tweet is still on the internet.

On the 20th June 2019, Wiley shared the tracklist (and quickly deleted it) on Instagram and indicated GF3 would not be ready until 2020, and he was instead working on another album with a more commercial tinge (later confirmed to be Full Circle or InstaIdeas, however Wiley would later cancel this project and turn it into the renamed Boasty Gang project). This change was likely due to the unexpected success of “Boasty”. This was however later contradicted on 20 August 2019, when Wiley stated Godfather 3 would be released September 27th. This turned out false, when in late September it was delayed once more til January 1st.

On 14 December 2019, we received a new tracklist cutting down the album from 21 songs to 14. Wiley also announced the album would be a vinyl and CD exclusive initially, before eventually landing on streaming, possibly inspired by fellow grime MC Jme who released Grime MC as a physical exclusive on 29 November. On 29 December, Wiley once again delayed the album and confirmed that instead, a single would be released on 1 January 2020 as opposed to the album.

By 9 January, the album was yet unreleased. Wiley stated it was “never” planned to be released online on 1 January, but he had planned to release it physically on 1 January until “someone blocked” him. Wiley also stated that his song “Mazza” will be released on 17 January (it actually dropped on the 14th), then Godfather 3 a week later.

Contrary to earlier comments about GF3 being physical only, Wiley stated on 17 January:

Godfather 3 is dropping online cos I ain’t got time to mess about anymore but yes I am going back to the village for sure.Just can’t wait anymore.#G3 Vinyl and Cd & Online all at once.#LetsGo

On 27 January, Wiley posted a new tracklist (pushing the tracklist back up to 24 songs) and suggested the album would be out 21 February 2020.

On 15 February, Wiley implied the album was cancelled:

I’m not putting out a Wiley album I’ve decided I just wanna rebuild my scene back to the way it used to run but in this modern time so yes I have to adapt to what’s going on.🙏🏾🏆✅ We need to get the wheels turning properly again.#TheScene

On 6 March 2020, Wiley announced the album would be dubbed Back To The Village instead, as opposed to Godfather 3. However, on 18 May he appeared to have walked back on this. A new tracklist appeared on 24 May, and the album was finally released on 5 June.