Wiley- the godfather of grime. If you are unfamiliar with what grime is, its basically the main genre from UK underground hip hop. Grime is otherwise known as eski-beat which was a term invented by Wiley because of the way he felt his music sounded. (eskimo dance, for the mixing tunes)Wiley (a.k.a Eskiboy),Richard Kylea Cowie was born on 19 January 1979 in Bow East London. Since he was 15 he began touring and rapping in local clubs and was very quickly recognised and appreciated as an important grime artist.
So aswell as basically create the genre of grime today, he was also one of the founding members of the Roll Deep Crew which contains other grime artists such as Dizzee Rascal, JME & Skepta are a very renound rap group and they have released a few albums which have been succesful. However to promote himself as a major grime character, he often played on East London pirate radio stations where he gained many fans. In his career he released three albums, Treddin' On Thin Ice, Da 2nd Phaze, Playtime Is Over, Tunnel Vision Volumes 1-7, many other grime compilation and all of the Roll Deep Crew songs.
However despite all of this, when Wiley was at the peak of his career and was seen as the most important figure in Grime, on the 22nd January 2007 he announced that he was retiring from rapping. Although it was a huge upset to the UK hip hop scene, but it was well respected because he basically felt that he was 28, he didnt see things going too much further, and he felt he had much bigger responsibilities than grime because it is a hard industry to be in, constant feuds and 'beefs' with other rappers, he always felt that he would get stabbed or shot when in clubs." Wiley had lyrical rivalry with Dizzee Rascal, Durrty Goodz, Bashy, Lethal Bizzle, More Fire Crew, Ghetto, Scorcher, Jimmy Neutron, The Movement, Sharkey Major, Sniper E, Devlin, Crazy Titch, Aza T & Wretch 32)He decided to leave all this, because he wants to be with his family more and look after his baby daughter.
However he is continuing to be one of the main producers in the grime industry and is still mixing tracks, he just feels that his 'Mic' days are over. He also announced that he is releasing some music dvd's and will hopefully have occasional tours.
His retirement was quite gutting for me because I have been listening to his music a lot and he has became one of my favourite artists, I particularly like His new album 'Playtime Is Over'- especially the tracks: 50/50, Bow E3 & Getalong Gang.
If interested visit the website- http://www.2step-garage.co.uk/mc_profile/wiley.htm
