The Tottenham-born rapper Wretch 32, real name Germaine Scott, has long been a pioneer of the evolving UK hip-hop scene. Beginning his career in grime before developing multi-genre fusions, his music has consistently balanced soulful storytelling with sharp social commentary.
His latest album HOME?, released in May 2025, is one of his most ambitious projects to date. Blending grime, afrobeat, reggae, garage, R&B, and spoken word, the record explores the question of what “home” means for a Black British artist raised in Tottenham. Critics praised it as a daring work of social documentation. Rolling Stone UK called it “a piece of social documentation that stretches back generations,” while Hive Magazine described it as “raw, unfiltered and unapologetic artistry.”
Wretch 32 grew up on the Tiverton Estate, situated next to the Broadwater Farm, notorious for the riots of the 1980s. He is the third generation of his family to be raised there, his great-grandparents having emigrated from Jamaica. His upbringing exposed him early to the realities of racial injustice in the UK. His father was active in community activism and frequently appeared on television campaigning for equality. Wretch himself was featured as a baby in the 1988 documentary Scenes from the Farm, filmed in the aftermath of the riots and capturing the lived realities of 1980s Black Britain.
This background informs much of ‘HOME?’. In “Black and British,” his collaboration with Little Simz and Benjamin AD, he recalls being abused on Black Boy Lane: “On Black Boy Lane I was caught on my own / He told me to go back to my country / I thought I was home.” That kind of raw commentary runs throughout the record, where personal experience intersects with broader cultural questions of belonging and displacement. Speaking to The Guardian earlier this year, he admitted his sense of home remains unsettled: “I feel like it always moves. I feel like it always changes. I’m still trying to put an exact location on it but as it stands it’s more who I’m with. I feel like I could make a home in any house.”
Now, following the release of the album, Wretch 32 will make his National Theatre debut with a dramatized adaptation of ‘HOME?’. Directed by Clint Dyer, the performance will combine music, spoken word, dance, and theatrical staging. Special guests will join him as he explores themes of Black British identity, belonging, and legacy in a production that blurs the line between theatre and live music.
The event is scheduled for one night only, on Thursday, 23 October at 9:00 p.m. at the Olivier Theatre.
It is part of the National Theatre’s autumn season, the first under new creative director Indhu Rubasingham, which signals a fresh and inclusive programming approach that welcomes artists from beyond traditional theatre circles.
