| Artist: Wiley |
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| Discography: Wiley |
| Wikipedia: Wiley (rapper) |
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| Wiley | |
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 Wiley (right) in New York City in 2005
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard Kylea Cowie |
| Born | 19 January 1979 |
| Origin | Bow, London |
| Genres | Grime, eskibeat |
| Occupations | MC / Producer / DJ / Record Label owner |
| Years active | 1994 - present |
| Associated acts | Roll Deep, Pay As U Go, Boy Better Know, Dizzee Rascal, More Fire Crew, N-Dubz |
Richard Kylea Cowie (born 19 January 1979,Bow, East London, England), better known by his stage name Wiley [1] (named after a character in the cartoon Thundercats) is a British music producer and MC who was one of the original founders of the Roll Deep Crew. Wiley has been active in the fields of Drum & Bass and UK Garage music, but is best known for being one of the pioneers of Grime.
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The Grime genre of music is said to be originated from Bow. Wiley has been proclaimed as the "King of Grime". Other Grime artists have cited Wiley as a big influence in their careers. [2][3] He has been a prolific artist producing several albums and mixtapes for a number of labels. His origins have often been a subject of his work (e.g. "Bow E3").
Wiley joined with the "The Ladies Hit Squad" UK Garage crew with school friends DJ Target and MC Maxwell D around 2000. They achived some success on the UKG scene but then decided to combine with rival crew Pay As U Go to become a "super crew" containing the Ladies Hit Squad members plus DJ Slimzee and MC's Major Ace and Plague. God's Gift, Flow Dan and Riko joined soon after[4]. In 2002 the collective achieved a top 40 hit "Champagne Dance"
Soon after the crew disintegrated due to the power of the individual members who had differing ideas of the direction the crew should take. Wiley went on to form the Roll Deep collective. Which included Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder as MC's. They were making music that was different from UK Garage. For a while there was not even a name for it. The label "grime" was the one that stuck. [5]
From 2001, Wiley produced a slew of instrumental "riddims" singles on his WileyKat Record label. The most famous ones are the "Avalanche", "Blizzard", "Eskimo" and "Ice Rink". This lead to him sign a record deal with XL Recordings.
In 2004, Wiley released an album, Treddin' on Thin Ice on XL Recordings. Singles from the album include, "Wot Do U Call It ?" a record questioning what name should be given to his music and "Pies".
During this period, Wiley occasionally referred to his music as "Eski", short for Eskimo[1]. Also, Wiley released mixtapes under the name "Eskiboy". He explained his choice of name for his music and the continuing theme in his song and album titles such as Treddin' on Thin Ice, partly because he likes the wintertime, but mainly meaning cold in spirit.[6] Wiley was quoted in conjunction with his "cold" theme:
"Sometimes I just feel cold hearted. I felt cold at that time, towards my family, towards everyone. That's why I used those names"[7]
." Many of Wiley's early vinyl releases, such as 'Eskimo', were released under the alias "Wiley Kat", this name was derived from a character in the cartoon Thundercats. However the 'Kat' is never officially used by Wiley anymore, only mentioned loosely in some of his songs.
In 2007, Wiley released Playtime is Over on Big Dada Records, an album which followed his eskibeat roots.
In 2008, Wiley found chart success with the hit single, "Wearing My Rolex". The instrumentation (such as the slower, house style beat and lack of sub bass) [8] caused some unrest within the Grime scene as Wiley had previously vowed that he would never change his origin to break into the mainstream.
Wiley also released an album See Clear Now in October 2008 which included hits Wearing My Rolex, Cash In My Pocket and Summertime. This album took Wiley in a mainstream direction. Despite it's success Wiley has disowned the album as he was "very angry" with the label, Asylum, about the production and also unhappy about his then management. Wiley left the label[9] and has gone on to make another album Race Against Time. This was released 8 months after his previous album in June 2009, on Eskibeat Recordings where he had much more creative control. The album includes the 2009 hit Too Many Man featuring Boy Better Know.
It was annouced at the end of October 2009, that Wiley had signed a 4-album deal with record label Island Records. The first single to be released under his new record label will be "Take That", a collaboration with producer Chew Fu.[10] The first of these albums is entitled "The Elusive" [11]
Wiley also has two clothing ranges in addition to his music.[12] The performer announced his retirement in 2007 as he thought he was "too old" for the game aged 28. He quickly ended it to continue recording the following year when he released the "Wearing My Rolex" single. [13]
Wiley is the CEO and owner of his own record company, EskiBeat Recordings, which he does a lot of production and artist development for artists in and out the Grime scene.
In November 2008, a hoax BBC News report appeared stating that Wiley had been stabbeed to death in Hackney, East London. Wiley responded to reports of his demise by posting on his MySpace blog "I AM NOT DEAD". On the same day, American rapper, Lil' Wayne also had a fake report of his death posted.[14]
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