Wiley took his name from the beloved ThunderCats cartoon, and he is definitely one of those felines that have nine lives. The U.K. rapper/producer has kept reincarnating himself in terms of genre and freshness: as soon as you think he’s played out, he comes and drops something so dope, so forward, so now, you have to reassess his whole career.

He started out as a drum and bass DJ, then embraced UK Garage; it was as the major domo of the Roll Deep crew that Wiley truly made his name. With Roll Deep, Wiley would help launch the grime genre by mixing hip-hop beats with devastating rave bass and hyperkinetic rapping; indeed, Dizzee Rascal was one of his acolytes. Wiley couldn’t be contained by any genre – he started calling his spooky yet devastatingly funky, minimal productions “Eskimo” or “eski sound” – their minimalism paving the way for dubstep’s low-end dominance. But just as dubstep started grabbing the spotlight, Wiley dropped “Wearing My Rolex,” a huge smash that shouldn’t have worked: its rhymes were hopeless bling retreads, its beat a simple cod-house thump – but it proved utterly irresistible regardless.

Wiley’s latest single, “Never Be Your Woman,” follows a similar pattern. Wiley doesn’t follow trends, he shatters them; the minute something becomes trendy and ubiquitous, he does the exact, unfashionable opposite – and comes out on top every time. “Never Be Your Woman” is just that: instead of fashionable dubstep, Wiley reaches back to his UK Garage roots for a decidedly retro sound that sounds fresh despite its clear sell-past date. Per classic UK Garage, he uses an insanely catchy straight R&B chorus – courtesy haunting vocalist Emeli Sandé – recycled from a past pop hit (White Town’s 1997 electro-pop hit “Your Woman”) next, he combines it with a soca/tropical dosed house beat with ersatz rave-snare buildups and big bass booms, and voila! By the end, the whole thing just screams for a rewind. Best of all are Wiley’s near-incomprehensible raps: he’s kinda the Ghostface of grime/dubstep/whatever, seemingly spewing nonsense but coming off dope anyway. Here, he moves from bling boasts so dated they’d embarrass Diddy to his sexual prowess to describing his favorite air fresheners (Wild Orchid, fyi) and it’s never less than engaging. That’s what makes Wiley endure – even on a shameless chart grab like this, he still comes off as too eccentric to be reined in by any genre parameters or pop formula.

KSPACE Bonus Video:  Wiley is double fisting, crushing the banger/pop scene at the same time he is releasing slow-burning garage heaters. Releasing ‘Take That’ with remix artist / up and coming producer ChewFu the 28th of December. Best step right back and take that!?