Boy Better Know have been revealed as the guest under the alias ‘The Mandem’ on Wireless Festival‘s 2025 line-up.
This past weekend, the line-up for the annual rap and hip-hop music bash was announced, seeing Drake as the sole headliner across all three nights. Wireless will take place at London’s Finsbury Park this summer, running from July 11 to 13 and will see the ‘Hotline Bling’ rapper perform three different sets – each with a unique, curated group of guests – for the festival’s 20th anniversary celebration. The festival is completely sold out.
The day line-up for Saturday July 12 simply teases the headline slot “Drake and the mandem”, leaving fans to speculate who ‘The Madem’ could be.
Now, it has been revealed that ‘The Madem’ are Boy Better Know, who will take the stage for their first live appearance in eight years.
Comprised of Skepta, Jme, Frisco, Jammer, DJ Maximum, Preditah and Shorty – the collective were the first grime act to headline Wireless and will return to the music bash in celebration of both the 20th anniversary of Wireless and 20 years of Boy Better Know’s groundbreaking career.
Other acts set to perform at the music festival include the likes of Burna Boy, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Summer Walker and Vybz Kartel, with more set to be announced at a later date.
Elsewhere, The use of the popular British slang term ‘The Mandem’ on the Wireless Festival line-up left many fans and figures from the music world upset that UK artists were reduced to just “the mandem” in their home country.
IT’S BEEN A WHILE BUT THE BOY IS HOME 🇬🇧
For our 20th anniversary.… @Drake will headline all THREE nights with three different setlists.https://t.co/TYiE06jNRA for pre-sale info.
General sale on Wednesday 19th Feb at 12pm GMT.@burnaboy @partynextdoor @IAMSUMMERWALKER… pic.twitter.com/CfmMGq0DnC— Wireless Festival (@WirelessFest) February 16, 2025
“UK acts are being reduced to the ‘mandem’ in their own gaff [skull emoji] – I wonder why Americans take the piss out of us,” one X/Twitter user wrote.
Another backed them up, saying: “Every day, ‘It’s not that deep.’ Now, they won’t even call you by name in your own city [sad face emoji]. A 20-year celebration of a homegrown festival… and they’ve named you ‘The Mandem’ like a twerking collective… crazy. I’m so sorry. So Solid didn’t do ’21 seconds’ for this!!!”
In other news, Skepta recently replied to Central Cee paying homage to Boy Better Know by getting their logo tattooed while on a live stream.