It’s a bold move to call your first project in over a decade Best In The Game, but for Roll Deep, the title feels less like a boast than a statement of fact—one the crew have spent the past twenty-five years earning.

The story of Roll Deep properly begins in 2001, when Wiley founded the crew shortly after the dissolution of Pay As U Go Cartel. Initially labelled as The Entourage Crew, they stamped their mark with the track “Terrible”, a seminal moment in the transition of grime out of UK garage. From there, they became one of the most consequential ensembles in British music history. Two No. 1 singles, generational pirate radio sets and a roster that fluctuated wildly—at its peak, swelling to nearly twenty members—made Roll Deep a revolving door for many of the UK’s brightest future stars. The alumni list reads like a grime honours board: Dizzee Rascal was there in the early days; Tinchy Stryder was closely affiliated; Skepta and Jme both passed through before founding Boy Better Know; and Flowdan, now a Grammy winner, was part of the furniture, apparently even suggesting the name Roll Deep. The crew’s genius was always collective.

Today, Roll Deep consists of Manga Saint Hilare, Scratchy, Riko Dan, Roachee, Breeze and DJ Karnage. There are, of course, some notable absences from this iteration of the crew, most prominently Wiley, whose presence still lingers on Best In The Game highlight “No Matter What” through a vocal sample. But this leaner formation proves you don't need twenty members—or even your founder—to sound like yourself. If anything, the reduction in numbers has sharpened the focus. Everyone on this record sounds like they want to be here, and with fewer voices competing for space, each member has the opportunity to make their presence felt.

Roll Deep are at their best when feeding off one another’s energy, and the project’s lead single, “B.U.N.”, is a perfect example of that. Built around a classic Scratchy hook, the rest of the crew take the B.U.N. scheme to inform their own flows and verses. It’s a formula that has served Roll Deep well in the past, most notably on “When I’m Ere” from their debut album, In At The Deep End (2005), often cited as a high point for the group, and it remains just as effective here. There’s a real sense of momentum running through the track, with each verse feeling like a response to the last rather than everyone waiting for their turn on the mic. The result is the kind of communal energy that has always made Roll Deep more than the sum of its parts.

One of the crew’s greatest strengths has always been their self-sufficiency as a collective, largely thanks to an exceptional roster of in-house producers. In the group’s early years, Danny Weed, DJ Target and Wiley were already building a distinct sonic identity, manipulating the presets and sounds of the Korg Triton into something cohesive and instantly recognisable. For Best In The Game, the core production team is notably absent, and while Roll Deep without Eskibeat might feel close to sacrilege, the project instead leans on Lewi B—Manga Saint Hilare’s longtime collaborator—who handles much of the production. It’s clear he understands exactly what makes Roll Deep tick. His beats draw on the sounds and rhythms historically associated with the crew without ever slipping into anything too much like a Danny Weed impression.

“Entourage” is probably the most familiar-sounding track here, built around a musette-style synth that calls back to Roll Deep classics like “Heat Up”, and even features a snare that instantly evokes Wiley’s signature production style. But it’s balanced by tracks such as “Na Bad” and “No Matter What”, the latter using Platinum 45’s “Kingston 13 Riddim”, one of the standout grime instrumentals of 2025, pushing the group’s sound into more contemporary territory. While the crew’s foundations are still respected, there’s a clear shift towards a more driving, forward-facing sound rather than simply revisiting the past. Moments like this feel less like an attempt to recreate what came before, and more like a convincing argument for Roll Deep’s continued relevance in the present.

Musically, Best In The Game feels closer in spirit to Rules & Regulations (2007) than to their debut, In At The Deep End. The commercial breakthrough of In At The Deep End came, in part, from smoothing out some of the rougher edges in pursuit of radio play, drawing on ‘80s R&B samples you’d more typically hear on Magic FM. Some of it landed better than others, but it was an experiment in grime’s early lifecycle. Rules & Regulations, on the other hand, felt like the recalibration—a stripped-back project that leaned away from crossover ambition and instead focused on delivering harder, more direct grime bangers.

There are no obvious chart singles on Best In The Game, but that’s largely beside the point. Roll Deep already have two No. 1 hits, and returning from a hiatus with another “Good Times” or “Green Light” would risk misjudging how much the musical landscape has shifted since then. Instead, the mixtape strikes a balance between satisfying longtime grime purists with a dose of nostalgia, while still delivering tracks built to work in a peak-time set on the fabric Room 1 soundsystem. Roll Deep ain’t never been regular, and this project proves it.