''Wretchrospective'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

released by

British hip hop UK rap, also known as British hip hop or UK hip hop or British rap, is a music genre and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. The development of UK rap was shaped by a distinct set of regional inf ...

recording artist

Wretch 32 Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The ...

. The album was released on 13 October 2008, on the Hip Hop Village label. Not having been released on a major label, the album failed to chart on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. "In da Ghetto" and "Be Cool" were released as singles from the album prior to its release. The album features guest appearances from

Ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

Chipmunk Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of subtribe Tamiina. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Chipmunks are classified as four genera: '' ...

, MC Boachie, Scorcher, Haydon, Badness and Calibar. The video for "In da Ghetto" features appearances from

and Badness, and the video for "Be Cool" features an appearance from Wizzy Wow.

Background

Production on the album began in January 2007, after the release of Wretch's second mixtape, ''Teacher's Training Day'', which featured guest appearances from

Ghetts Justin Jude Clarke-Samuel (born 9 October 1984), better known by his stage name Ghetts (formerly Ghetto), is a British Grime (music), grime MC, rapper, songwriter and actor. His music has been played on national radio stations such as BBC Radio ...

Bashy Ashley Thomas (born 4 February 1985), also known by the stage name Bashy, is a British actor and rapper. Early life Thomas was born in Hammersmith, West London. His mother is of Jamaican heritage and his father is of Dominican heritage. He att ...

and Scorcher, in 2006. Wretch received his first big break when he was asked to perform at the first annual MP3 music awards in July 2007. Following his performance, he hooked up with several producers from the grime scene and continued work on his debut album. Upon the album's release in November 2008, promotion began with a performance on the

BBC Introducing BBC Music Introducing is BBC Radio's platform supporting unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar UK music talent. The backbone of that network consists of 32 BBC local radio shows on stations across England and the Channel Islands, various ...

stage of

Radio 1's Big Weekend BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) (previously known as One Big Weekend, for 2012 as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, and for 2018 as BBC Music's Biggest Weekend) is a British music festival run by BBC Radio 1. It is held once a year, in a different l ...

in 2009, where he performed such tracks as "Be Cool", "Take This from Me" and "In da Ghetto". Shortly after the performance, Wretch was signed by

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...

, and was nominated at the Urban, Grime and Garage Awards for best album with ''Wretchrospective''. On 6 December 2010, Wretch was named as one of the nominees for

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's '' Sound of 2011'', an annual poll which predicts artists that will progress during the upcoming year. This shortly led towards the release of his major label debut album, ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

''. "Welcome to My World" was sampled by

Jake Gosling Jake Nathan Gosling is an English record producer and songwriter. Best known for his production work for English singer Ed Sheeran, he has also been credited on releases for acts including Lady Gaga, The Libertines, James Bay, Shawn Mendes, A ...

on the

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

song "Nina" from his second studio album '' x''. The song is about

Nina Nesbitt Nina Lindberg Nesbitt (born 11 July 1994) is a Scottish singer and songwriter. She is best known for her UK singles chart, UK and Scottish Singles and Albums Charts, Scottish top 40 hit singles "Stay Out" and "Selfies (song), Selfies". She also ...

, a former girlfriend of Sheeran's who once toured with him.

2012 reissue

The album was re-released on 12 November 2012, following the success of his commercial debut release, ''Black and White''. The new deluxe edition features additional appearances from

Tinie Tempah Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie (formerly Tinie Tempah), is a British rapper and singer. He has been signed to Parlophone since 2009, now a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his ...

, Sway and Wiley, in the guise of three new tracks packaged with the album. The deluxe edition was made available as a digital release only, via the iTunes Store and

Amazon MP3 Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manage ...

services. The album's re-release features an alternative cover to the original, and was officially endorsed by his current record label,

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2008 albums 2012 albums Wretch 32 albums