Alongside the announcement, Wretch 32 also treated fans to a new single, 'Like Home' with Teni this past week.
After recently celebrating his 40th birthday, it feels as though Wretch 32 is entering a new era of clarity and artistic intention. The North-London rapper (and singer, songwriter, creative director, author, and the list goes on...) remains one of the sharpest, most poignant lyricists this country has ever produced, making any new music announcement a thrilling prospect.
Following the release of Bashy's recent double MOBO-winning album 'Being Poor Is Expensive', it strikes me that Wretch could be on for a similar trajectory, as his artistry has continued to evolve, mature, and improve after some time away from the studio as the primary artist. 'Home?' could likely be one of the defining albums of 2025.
Wretch 32 also offers up a new single along with the news, 'Like Home', featuring Nigerian singer-songwriter Teni. This new musical era is continued with a single centred on upbringing, rooting and the universality of home.
'Like Home' is built around a stripped-back, rhythmic Afro-beat shuffle, allowing the lush wordplay of Wretch and soothing, honeyed vocal harmonies of Teni to take center stage. The song feels intimate and powerful, evoking themes of belonging and emotional connection, with the subtle, restrained production underscoring the raw emotion in the lyrics. The accompanying music video reflects the single’s tranquil essence, capturing Wretch and Teni in moments of solitary calmness.
“Some things remind you of home, the things that smell like home, the things that look like home, the things that taste like home, this sounds like home so it feels like home, welcome to my house.” - Wretch 32
Listeners were first introduced to this new chapter with the single 'Black and British' ft. Little Simz and Benjamin A.D. Wretch's Grandmother Beverley Scott is poignantly sampled at the end of the track, taken from the milestone ‘Scenes From The Farm’ Broadwater Farm estate documentary, first televised in 1988. The roots of activism and black representation run deeply through Wretch 32’s family-life and upbringing. Growing up he remembers the years of police raids on his grandmother’s house in the aftermath of the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985, remembers waking in the mornings to see his Dad speaking out for the community on GMTV, or his Uncle doing the same on London Tonight, the posters of Muhammad Ali flowered on the walls, and the community activists holding court in the family’s front room. The aforementioned ‘Scenes From The Farm’ captures the lives and realities of the Afro-Caribbean community in Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm estate. It depicts the aftermath of the 1985 riots, a community stirred to rise in resistance after sustained accounts of police brutality. When creating this new music, Wretch kept the documentary on repeat.
Over the past two decades, Wretch 32 has been crowned as one of the most impactful, creative and poetic voices in British music. From mainstream chart success to the critical acclaim of albums Growing Over Life (2016) and Upon Reflection (2019), to his current role as Creative Director at 0207 Def Jam, to the release of his first book Rapthology: Lessons in Life and Lyrics, he has cemented his role as a vital player in the voicing of contemporary Black British expression and art.
This new era continues in exquisite fashion with 'Like Home'. Bring on the album.
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