hip-hop

Wiley

1 upcoming festival

The architect of eskibeat and one of grime's founding figures, whose icy, video-game-cold productions set the template the whole scene grew from.

Wiley, born Richard Cowie, is an MC and producer from Bow in east London, and one of the central figures in the emergence of grime from UK garage at the start of the 2000s. He was part of Pay As U Go Cartel before founding the Roll Deep collective, whose ranks at various points included Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder. His instrumental work, particularly the eskibeat productions built from cold, sparse synth tones, gave the genre much of its early sonic identity.

Alongside a long run of mixtapes and white-label twelve-inches, he has had commercial pop success, including the single "Wearing My Rolex". He is widely referred to as the godfather of grime, as much for the artists he brought through as for his own records.

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