Richard Kylea Cowie Jr. (born 19 January 1979), better known by his stage name Wiley (formerly Wiley Kat), is a British grime MC and producer from Bow, London. Wiley is often labelled the "Godfather of Grime". In the early 2000s, he independently released a series of highly influential eskibeat instrumentals on white label vinyl, such as the first in the series "Eskimo" and is known as a grime MC both for his solo work and for material released with his crew Roll Deep.
Wiley first tasted success as a member of the UK garage crew Pay as U Go, with whom he had a top 40 hit, "Champagne Dance" in 2001. Wiley has continued to make grime music while also releasing mainstream singles, such as the UK Singles Chart top 10 hits "Wearing My Rolex", "Never Be Your Woman", and his UK number-one "Heatwave". Wiley's eleventh album, Godfather (2017), peaked at number nine on the UK Albums Chart, becoming his highest-charting album of his career, and also won an "Outstanding Contribution to Music" award by NME.
Wiley has been stabbed on several occasions. In 2008, a stabbing left him with a visible scar on the left side of his face. On 24 July 2020, Wiley made a series of posts and videos on social media, widely condemned as antisemitic. Having been appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music, in February 2024, the Honours Forfeiture Committee formally stripped Wiley of his honour for "bringing the honours system into disrepute".
Early life Wiley was born as Richard Kylea Cowie Jr. on 19 January 1979 in Bow, East London. He is of Trinidadian and Antiguan descent. Wiley’s father, Richard Cowie Senior was a reggae artist during Wiley’s youth in the 1980s and introduced Wiley to early hip-hop such as The Sugarhill Gang. Wiley’s interest in music began when his father introduced him to the drums. Wiley moved around London a lot as a child with his father before moving to Chatham, Kent to live with his grandmother when he was ten. Wiley spent a year in Chatham and described it as a bad time, saying "I just wanted to go and live with my dad. I felt abandoned." Wiley eventually moved back to Bow to live with his father when he was eleven years old.
When Wiley was a teenager in the early-1990s, he began to sell crack cocaine and heroin. Wiley was introduced to drug dealing by a DJ friend who was making a lot of money at the time. Wiley stopped dealing drugs when a local drug dealer who was much older than him began to threaten him and his friend. Wiley began producing music after he stopped dealing drugs as an alternative way to make money. Cowie started as a DJ, and eventually began rapping, incorporating garage music and drum and bass into his produced instrumentals which led to the creation of the first ever grime beats such as "Eskimo", produced in Christmas of 1999 or 2000 and officially released in 2002. He broadcast his productions over pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM. Initially Wiley went by the name DJ Wildchild, until a woman from Kool FM began using the name Wildchild herself and surpassed Wiley in popularity. As a result, he changed his name to Wiley Kat, references to a Thundercats character and the Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote, and later simply Wiley.
Though Wiley stopped selling drugs, he was still associated with criminal gangs and with people who took part in criminal activities. This led to Wiley being involved in many situations that were life-threatening. On one occasion, Wiley’s friend had solicited money from someone following a drug deal though the money never was paid, Wiley argued with the person who owed his friend money and eventually Cowie was ambushed when attending a show. The confrontation led to Wiley being stabbed seven times. Several weeks later, the same people attacked Wiley outside a sports retail store, which led to Wiley almost dying in a hospital in Hammersmith. Wiley has been stabbed more than twenty times in his lifetime and has been in numerous other life-threatening situations including being chased by a man with a samurai sword and being shot at with shotguns.
Music career 1996–2003: early years As a teenager, Wiley featured on pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM and drum and bass stations.Wiley (Eskiboy): From 1995 Onwards On Pirate Radio, In 2000, Wiley went from SS Crew to join The Ladies Hit Squad, a garage crew with his college friends DJ Target and MC Maxwell D.Wiley B2B DJ Target & MC Maxwell D (Ladies Hit Squad) | Rinse FM 100.3 | UK Garage 2000 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 Slimzee, Geeneus and MCs Major Ace and Plague Alero from Brown Brothers whom Wiley occasionally deejayed for. God's Gift from Dek Collecters, Flowdan and Riko Dan joined soon after. In 2002, the collective achieved a top 20 hit with "Champagne Dance". Wiley also received wide recognition in 2000 for his UK garage record "Nicole's Groove" which he produced under the stage name Phaze One.
After Pay As U Go disbanded, Wiley went on to form the Roll Deep entourage, 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.
From 2001 onwards, Wiley began producing instrumental singles on his Wiley Kat Recordings label, including "Eskimo", "Avalanche", "Ice Rink" and "Snowman". These led to a solo record deal with XL Recordings.
2004–2007: Treddin' on Thin Ice, Da 2nd Phaze and Playtime Is Over In 2004, Wiley released his debut album, Treddin' on Thin Ice on XL. Singles from the album include "Wot Do U Call It?", a record questioning what name should be given to his music, and "Pies". Wiley's use of the Korg Triton on "Wot Do U Call It?" helped cement the synthesizer as a Grime staple. 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. 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."
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. 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" 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 any more, only being mentioned loosely in some of his songs.
In early 2005, Wiley featured on Ruff Sqwad's track "Together", from their mixtape Guns and Roses Volume 1 (released March 2005 on Ruff Sqwad Recordings). The song became a notable underground hit in the UK grime scene.
During this period, grime tracks spread rapidly among young people in London through Bluetooth file sharing on mobile phones at schools, on public transport, and at social gatherings, predating mainstream streaming and social media. This grassroots method helped drive the viral popularity of tracks like "Together" in the mid-2000s grime scene.
A separate "Together" EP was released in September 2005. The collaboration highlighted Wiley's influence in supporting emerging grime acts.
In 2006, Wiley released his second album Da 2nd Phaze, released through Boy Better Know. 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.
This was followed in by Wiley's third album, Playtime is Over, released in 2007 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 his feud with Dizzee Rascal.
2008–2009: Grime Wave, See Clear Now and Race Against Time In May 2008, Wiley found mainstream chart success with the hit single, "Wearing My Rolex". The instrumentation, such as the slower, house style beat and lack of sub bass, caused some unrest within the grime scene, as Wiley had previously vowed that he would never change his sound to break into the mainstream. In the same month, Wiley released his fourth album, 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". This was followed by his fifth studio album, See Clear Now, in October 2008, which included the mainstream hits "Wearing My Rolex", "Cash in My Pocket" and "Summertime". See Clear Now 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 then left the label.
Now on his own label, Wiley went on to release his sixth studio album, Race Against Time. This was released eight months after his previous album in June 2009, on Eskibeat Recordings where he had far more creative control. The album includes the 2009 hit "Too Many Man" featuring Boy Better Know.
2010–2011: Zip Files, iTunes Offload and 100% Publishing In 2010, Wiley released 11 zip files for free download via his Twitter page, containing over 200 tracks of old and unreleased music, including tracks from the forthcoming album The Elusive.
Wiley was featured on the Mark Ronson song "Record Collection", also featuring Simon Le Bon, from the album of the same name, released first in Ireland on 24 September 2010. The song was included on the soundtrack to FIFA 11.
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". 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 seventh studio album, 100% Publishing, was released on 20 June 2011 on the record label Big Dada, and charted in the UK Albums Chart at number 76.
On 8 July 2011, Wiley released an independent EP for digital download titled Chill Out Zone. Singles from the EP, "Seduction" and "If I Could" were released in May 2011.
On 25 July 2011, Wiley released the radio edit of "Link Up" on iTunes, which is the first single from his eighth studio album, Evolve or Be Extinct, which was released on 19 January 2012. "Link Up" is produced by Nana Rogues and the official "Link Up" single was released in September 2011.
2012–2013: Evolve or Be Extinct and The Ascent