purple haze?

Two very different artists have been expressing two very different attitudes towards the current trends in the music industry today.

The same weekend that music fans were grabbing themselves the Saturday edition of The Mirror in order to own Prince's new album, a niche market of internet forum dwellers and bloggers frantically downloading and re-upping 11 zip files of music by Wiley.

Prince has been recording since the 1970s and is renowned for stoically sticking to his guns, whether it has been ludicrous name changes and daubing the word 'slave', across his cheek, or his embracing of internet culture in order to cultivate and reach out to die-hard fans.

But the diminutive musician changed tack recently, declaring that "the internet is completely over" and proclaiming that his latest album would not be available through online sites such as i-tunes, instead choosing to strike a deal that saw the physical release of '20ten' accompany a 65p copy of The Mirror

"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.", Prince told their interviewer, "All these computers and digital gadgets just fill your head with numbers, and that can't be good for you."

But the UK's Godfather of Grime, Wiley, obviously sees things very differently and very publicly sacked his manager via twitter before proceeding to upload 11 zip files, including music that was due to be included on his upcoming major label album release, 'The Elusive'.

Already well respected on the underground, Wiley's star has been ascending since 2008's crossover hit 'Wearing My Rolex', collaborating with Mark Ronson along the way and achieving his first number one earlier this year with his Roll Deep crew hitting the top spot with 'Good Times'.

But he is now vowing to lock himself away and not let anyone hear his new music until a new album is complete.

And although Prince has been afforded TV and radio advertising and front page splashes it seems Wiley's wealth of material may be trumping the veteran performer's ten new tracks.

Hardly surprisingly, The Mirror hailed '20ten' as Prince's best since the highly praised 'Sign o' the Times' but in truth it does little to live up to or reinforce Prince's legendary status.

Where as those delving into Wiley's output have found tracks of a wildly varying quality, discovering enough gems ranging from in vogue house rap to his trademark distinctive eski-beat grime and everything inbetween to make it worth the time and effort needed to sort the the many megabytes of music made available to download.

links to all the zips can be found on grime forum