| Wiley | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard Kylea Cowie |
| Born | 19 January 1979 |
| Origin | Bow, London |
| Genres | UK garage, grime, eskibeat, hip hop |
| Occupations | Rapper, musician, producer, DJ, record label owner |
| Years active | 2000-present |
| Labels | XL Records (2004-2004) Big Dada (2007-2007) Asylum (2008-2008) Island Records (2009-2009) Virgin Records (2010-2010) Big Dada (2011-Present) |
| Associated acts | Roll Deep, Boy Better Know, Dizzee Rascal, Maniac, A-List, Tinchy Stryder, Skepta, Pay As You Go Kartel, Giggs, Ed Sheeran |
Richard Kylea Cowie (born 19 January 1979), better known by his stage name Wiley[1] is a prolific British music producer, MC and recording artist, and rapper with roots from Trinidad. He is active in the fields of jungle, drum & bass and UK garage music.
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In 2000, Wiley joined with "The Hit Squad" a garage crew with his school friends DJ Target and MC Maxwell D. They achieved some success on the UK Garage scene and soon decided to combine with rival crew Pay As U Go to become a 'super crew' containing members of Ladies Hit Squad, as well as DJ Slimzee and MC's Major Ace and Plague. God's Gift, Flow Dan and Riko joined soon after.[2] In 2002 the collective achieved a top 40 hit "Champagne Dance"[3]
After Pay As U Go disbanded Wiley went on to form the Roll Deep collective, which included Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder. They moved away from a traditional UK Garage sound, and eventually found themselves creating music that would be termed grime.[4]
From 2001 onwards, Wiley began producing instrumental singles on his WileyKitKat Record label. The most famous ones are the "Eskimo", "Avalanche" and "Ice's Rink". These led to a solo record deal with XL Recordings.
In 2004, Wiley released his debut 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'. Many reviews, including that by Pitchfork Media, made comparisons between Wiley and his previous labelmate Dizzee Rascal, who had achieved success with Boy in Da Corner the previous year.[5] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian noted the "comically polarised" fanbase Wiley had accrued; "At one extreme, its sonic experimentation has attracted the kind of people who run music blogs... [where] lengthy essays are posted on issues as the differentiation between Humean and Kantian views of motivation in the lyrics of Bonnie Prince Billy. At the other extreme, it is favoured by inner-city teens who appear to communicate entirely in an impenetrable mix of street slang and patois."[6]
During this period, Wiley occasionally referred to his music as 'Eski', short for 'Eskibeat' – the name he initially gave to grime. 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.[7] 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"[8]
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 being mentioned loosely in some of his songs.
In 2006, Wiley released his second album Da 2nd Phaze on the Boy Better Know label. The album consists of 20 tracks that have been put together by Wiley from the past three years, including exclusive bonus tracks from Gods Gift, Alex Mills and More Fire Crew, which is believed to signal the end of the Wiley-Lethal feud.
This was followed in by Wiley's third album Playtime is Over on Big Dada Records, an album which followed his eskibeat roots. Wiley's Eskibeat and solo material is managed by the Perpetuity Music Group. The album was released on the same day as Dizzee Rascal's third album Maths + English and includes a track "Letter 2 Dizzee" which calls for the end of the Wiley-Dizzee feud.[9][10]
In May 2008, Wiley found mainstream chart success with the hit single, "Wearing My Rolex". People saw this as him selling out. The instrumentation (such as the slower, house style beat and lack of sub bass)[11] caused some unrest within the Grime scene, as Wiley had previously vowed that he would never change his origin to break into the mainstream. In the same month, Wiley released his fourth album entitled Grime Wave, which was described by The Times as a "very pre-Rolex album. With its roots firmly based in the harsh, bass-heavy rhythms of the scene".[12] This album was followed by See Clear Now, in October 2008 which included the mainstream hits "Wearing My Rolex", "Cash In My Pocket" and "Summertime". This album took Wiley in a mainstream direction. Despite its success, Wiley has disowned the album as he was "very angry" with the label, Asylum, about the production and also unhappy about his management at the time. Wiley left the label[13]
Now on his own label, Wiley went on to make another album, Race Against Time. This was released eight 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.
In 2010 Wiley released 11 Zip Files for free download on his Twitter page, containing over 200 tracks of old and unreleased music, including tracks from the forthcoming album 'The Elusive'.[14]
On 4 March 2011, Wiley released "Offload Volume 01" on iTunes. It did not get a physical release and it was partially slated by fans for containing some tracks which had already been released for free on the Zip Files. The album contained many songs that featured Wiley's crew A-List as well as the track "Yo Riley", which had received some airplay beforehand. On 6 March 2011, Wiley released a song called "Bright Lights", which features Giggs and Juelz Santana. On 9 March 2011, Wiley released an instrumental album entitled "Run The Riddim Selecta". "Offload Volume 01", "Bright Lights" and "Run The Riddim Selecta" were all released on Launchpad Records. Wiley's highly anticipated album "100% Publishing" released on June 20, 2011 on the record label Big Dada. The album charted in UK Albums Chart at number 76.
On 8 July 2011, Wiley released a independent EP for digital download titled "Chill Out Zone". Singles from the EP, "Seduction" and "If I Could" were released in May 2011. Wiley has already announced his eighth studio album Evolve Or Be Excinct is due to be released on 19 January 2012.
On 25 July 2011 Wiley released the radio edit of "Link Up" on iTunes, which is the first single from his 8th studio album "Evolve Or Be Excinct" due to be release on 19 January 2012. "Link Up" is produced by Wiley's new protege and highly rated Producer Nana Rogues and the official "Link Up" single is due to be released in September 2011.
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