Album Of The Week: Wiki "Ancient History"

10:58 AM EDT on June 9, 2026

Last year, Wiki, the New York underground rap staple known to the government as Patrick Morales, showed up in the movie Marty Supreme . He wasn't in it for very long, though. I think he had one line. Sometimes, people describe Wiki's Marty Supreme appearance as a "cameo," but that word presupposes that a certain percentage of the Marty Supreme audience would know who Wiki is and maybe recognize him by sight. This is not the case. I have listened to Wiki's music for a long time, but I didn't even notice him when he popped up in the movie. He was simply one interesting New York face among many.

Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie is a New York guy, and the movies that he's made, both alone and with his brother Benny, are full of interesting New York faces. Some of those faces belong to underground rappers. The Safdies gave two different motion picture roles to Necro, possibly the least Hollywood-friendly minor celebrity who has ever existed. (He was great in both of them, too.) It probably didn't go down like this, but I imagine that Safdie and Wiki were in the same room at some point and that Safdie immediately recognized that Wiki has a great New York face, whether or not he knew what Wiki does for a living.

Wiki's brief Marty Supreme appearance isn't remotely important to the film, but I kept thinking about it while listening to Wiki's new album Ancient History . Marty Supreme is the story of a young striver from Lower Manhattan. He's great at a weird little niche thing, and he's convinced that this skill is going to take him to fame and fortune. The world keeps throwing chaotic shit at him, but he's from New York, so "chaotic shit" is his baseline. He takes it in stride, and it never dings his self-confidence. I wonder if Wiki could relate.

Wiki became a minor niche celebrity when he was still a teenager, making energetic and punk-adjacent street-kid rap with his group Ratking. He was striking and charismatic and instantly recognizable, and his group's music radiated a certain proudly underground swagger that seemed like it might herald a generational wave. The guys in Show Me The Body were kids when Ratking went on their run, and they've talked about seeing themselves in that group's approach. A lot of New York kids probably saw themselves in Ratking. For a minute there, Wiki must've felt like Marty Mauser.

It didn't exactly happen for Marty the way that he planned it, and it didn't exactly happen for Wiki, either. Ratking made a couple of albums and then broke up. Wiki embarked on a solo career, but he didn't quite become a star on his own. Critics liked him, and he had buzz working for him, but that never translated into popular success. Over the past decade or so, Wiki has put out a whole lot of records on his own label. He's crossed paths and made music with plenty of people who have achieved a certain level of fame — Run The Jewels, Earl Sweatshirt, Denzel Curry — but he's mostly in his own little underground lane. A few years ago, Wiki played a show in the small Southern college town where I live, and maybe 15 people showed up. The club was empty. I left early, before Wiki came onstage, just because it felt weird and awkward to be there.

On the first few lines of his Ancient History opening track "GTFOH," Wiki describes his own place in the universe. As producer Lord Unknown's hazy, psychedelic track cascades through the air, Wiki says, "Some would call him a tragic poet/ Coulda been globally known if only he had more exposure/ Only known by locals/ Tri-state, bicoastal/ Really only the pot-smokers." He doesn't sound proud or regretful. He's simply stating facts. As the song progresses, he considers a few of his own blown expectations, but he comes off satisfied with the fact that he can outrap just about anyone in front of him. It sounds like hard-won perspective.

Wiki is only 32 years old, but that means he's been famous-ish for almost half of his life. It's easy to feel washed when you were tipped for stardom but never found it. One read on Ancient History is that it's an inward-looking career-grappling rap record, like one of De La Soul's mid-period albums. But I don't think that's what Ancient History is. I think Ancient History is a true New York character accepting his fate as a true New York character, looking at his past and all the things that came before him, reveling in the chaos that molded him, and making beautiful music about it.

The music on Ancient History really is beautiful. Wiki leans hard on past collaborators, which just means he's comfortable, in his pocket, throughout. Most of those producers lace him with dazed, floaty beats. Reverb-smothered soul samples abound. Navy Blue, producing a couple of tracks but never rapping, goes for prismatic R&B reverie on the proudly conflicted "IHNY" and warped spaghetti-western heroism on the Your Old Droog back-and-forth "All In The Lining." Tony Seltzer and Carlos Truly's "Old Gods" beat makes your headphones feel like they're coated in lotion. Producing "7 Deadly Sins," indie-soul auteur Nick Hakim comes up with a blizzed-out half-jazz groove that sounds like it comes from an undiscovered '70s sample source even if it's all original.

On "Something New," Wiki and Brooklyn newcomer Salimata flirt with each other, hitting slyly athletic conversational flows, while MIKE, working under his dj blackpower alias, puts pretty organ sustain all over what sounds like the sped-up drums from a certain early-'00s hipster classic. (I don't want to name it because I don't want to get anyone sued.) It's one of the things that the album does so well. The male-female pickup-line duet has been a rap staple since the '80s. Wiki and Salimata don't necessarily do anything new with it. They just bring so much offhand charm to the process that it feels new.

With those beats working for him, Wiki goes deep into the caverns of his own memory, ruminating on all the ways that he's seen New York change over the years and the ways that its own history has built him. The single " Park " is about exactly what it says — all the parks in the city, big and small, where you can feel like you're in a utopian natural preserve even though you probably pay exorbitant monthly sums to live with multiple roommates in a closet. Lots of it is just Wiki reeling off the names of parks that he likes, which is probably only fun for people who have been to those parks. But stray imagery (my favorite: “badminton with the Buddhist monks”) describes the kind of surreal experience that you can realistically only hope to find if you find yourself ambling around New York City with no plan for the rest of your day.

That's how Ancient History works. Wiki gets lost in thought, except he does it out loud, in rhyming form, so we get to listen in on his internal monologue. On the single "Right Away," he tosses off a couple of early Jay-Z references and then describes his own version of Jay's fabled Rain Man mode: "I ain’t write this song, I just got on the mic one day/ When I light this bong, feel like I’m not my age." (Is it weird for a 32-year-old to light a bong? I feel like it's not. I feel like it's not weird for anyone, of any age, to light a bong. We're all just trying to get along here.) Sometimes, Wiki's internal monologue takes him to past heartbreaks: “A female I had feelings for peeled off/ So now, I don’t feel at all." Sometimes, he get systemic: "Had to capitalize, fuck capitalism/ Rationalize being better off last in line/ The simple thought had me pacified." Sometimes, as on "Had Your Fun," he just catches a wave of inspiration and bounces syllables off the walls.

Ancient History starts out pleasant and builds from there. It really takes flight about halfway through, on "Bloom." That beat comes from Wiki's reclusive old friend Lil Ugly Mane, who hasn't really been operating in the underground rap space lately. Ugly Mane's "Bloom" beat starts out as beautiful old-school indie rap — vinyl crackle, breakbeat, a loop of astral piano chords. But the track keeps changing, layering in new sounds like celestial bell-tingles and disorienting layers of DJ scratches. The Queens musician duendita whispers beatifically about the endless struggle to find an apartment and/or a softer life, while Wiki reflects, in his own way, on the same subject. It's just a stunning song. The first time I heard it, Ancient History immediately made the leap. Before that track, the LP sounded like another strong record from a consistent artist who only makes strong records. When that song sunk in, I started to feel like I was hearing something special. I haven't lost that impression yet.

Ancient History ends with its title track, another stunner. This time, the production is a free-floating sample symphony from the Alchemist, another old Wiki ally. It's so smooth and spaced-out that Wiki sounds philosophical even when he's just spitting one-liners: "Your breath stink like shit, need Listerine/ Keep talkin', I ain't listening." It's a soft, welcoming dream that ends with the voice of a woman who sings sweetly and wordlessly over the outro. I don't even know if I would've noticed that voice if not for a name that caught my eye in the album credits: "additional vocals by Lourdes Leon." Huh.

That's New York, right? You find yourself moving in funny circles, especially if you have the right spirit and an interesting face. Sometimes, you might wind up with Madonna's daughter singing on your indie rap record — that real Marty Supreme shit. As the Knicks make their Finals run and the city's local pride shines like a beacon, last night's Trump circus notwithstanding, I've found myself flooded with affection for a place that I once called home. On Ancient History , Wiki speaks about all the frustrating and transcendent things about his hometown, putting an interesting human face on all of it. The New York of today might not be quite the same as the one where he grew up, but it still produces great art. Here's an example.

Anicent History is out 6/12 on Wikset Enterprise.

Other albums of note out this week: Olivia Rodrigo's you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love YHWH Nailgun's Magazine Horse Lords' Demand To Be Taken To Heaven Alive! CFCF's  L.U.V. BIG|BRAVE's in grief or in hope Tim Barry's Clear Blocks Ahead Sister Gemini's Screaming Crying Laughing Sighing Jessie Reyez's A Little Vengeance Anysia Kym & Tony Seltzer's Purity (Flips) Bebe Rexha's DIRTY BLONDE Khemmis' Invocation Of The Dreamer Jim Jones' The Landlord Goose's Big Modern! Yes' Aurora Embrace's Avalanche Midland's Stages Blxst's Labor Of Love Jesse Welles' Masks Off Stitched Up Heart's Medusa Pussy Riot's CYKA Johnny Orlando's Songs For Young Lovers Big D And The Kids Table' The Good Ole American Saturday Night You-On's New Side Mon Laferte's Femme Fatale Vol. 2 Meltt's Pathways Funkwrench Blues' THIS IS THE ONE! (raison d'être) Soft Curse's Liminal Ritual Ok Goodnight's stop/go Lake Dorn's Black American Princess Kalia Vandever's Mana Joshua Crumbly's how i feel sometimes Anthony Rother's Anthony Rother Presents DATAPUNK 20+ YRS Concepción Huerta's No Queda Nada, Todo Resuena Picastro's Double On Time Terror/Cactus' Colapso Jenny Gillespie Mason's In The Safety Of Light Light Once Lost's What Doesn’t Steal You EP FIRES IN THE DISTANCE's Circadian Promise Ibrahim Maalouf's Trumpets Of Michel-Ange Vol. 2 The Army, The Navy's Fake Brave Life Paycheque's Paycheque Sports Boyfriend's Slice Of Life Myles Smith's My Mess, My Heart, My Life. Debit's Potpourri Samantha Fish's Paper Doll Live Breakfield's Breakfield Tarja's Frisson Noir Parent Teacher's Tricks For Meds Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe's Manifestations In The Shadow Of An Uncertain Land Brenn!'s AMATEUR AT BEST La Sécurité's Bingo! Sequoia’s So Long The Bobby Lees' New Self Berndt / Schmidt's Cloud Machines Alex Amen's Sun Of Amen Rachel Bolan's Gargoyle Of The Garden State Al

_Originally reported by [Stereogum](https://stereogum.com/2501203/album-of-the-week-wiki-ancient-history/reviews/album-of-the-week/)._