Name	Wiley
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Richard Kylea Cowie
Born	January 19, 1979
Origin	Bow, London (Ugandan and Antigua and Barbudan descent)
Genre	Grime, eskibeat
Label	XL Records (2004-2004) Big Dada (2007-2007) Asylum (2008-2008) Island Records (2009-2010) AATW (2010-2010) TBA (2011 Present)
Other names	Eskiboy, Wiley cat, Will
Associated acts	Roll Deep,Dizzee Rascal, N-Dubz, A-List, Tinchy Stryder, Giggs, Skepta, Devlin, Jodie Connor, J2K, Tania Foster, The Qemists, The Elite.
Occupation	MC / Producer / DJ / Record Label owner
Years active	1994–present}}

Richard Kylea Cowie (born 19 January 1979), better known by his stage name Wiley 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 Jungle, Drum & Bass and UK Garage music. He is best known for being the creator of Grime music.

Career

Wiley's earliest recordings date back to 1997, when he featured on pirate radio rapping over Jungle beats.

Pay As U Go and Roll Deep

In 2000, Wiley joined with "The Hit Squad" UK Garage crew with school friends DJ Target and MC Maxwell D around 2000. They achieved 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. 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 MCs. 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.

From 2001, Wiley produced a slew of instrumental singles on his WileyKat Record label. The most famous ones are the "Eskimo", "Avalanche" and "Ice Rink". This led to his record deal with XL Recordings.

Solo work/ (2004–2007)

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". Reviews such as in 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 anymore, only being 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. Wiley's Eskibeat and solo material is managed by the Perpetuity Music Group. The album included a track "Letter 2 Dizzee" which was a response song to Dizzee's track "Pussyole (Old Skool)", which many perceived to be about Wiley.

Mainstream success (2008–present)

In May 2008, Wiley found mainstream chart success with the hit single, "Wearing My Rolex". People saw this as him selling out. In a way it was him selling out, due to the fact that he was seen to not be able to use his heavy grime beats anymore. Kano therefore took the crown of "Lord of the Mic's". 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 origin to break into the mainstream. In the same month, Wiley released an album/mixtape 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". 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

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.

On July 8, 2010, Wiley fired his manager over Twitter and has since released 11 Zip Files for free download on his Twitter page, containing over 200 tracks of old and unreleased music, including the entire forthcoming album 'The Elusive'.

From October 2009 to October 2010 Wiley had been in 3 different record deals, firstly with a four-album deal with Island Records which he left in January due to various differences between him and his manager. Then in July 2010 signing with All Around The World which is behind N-Dubz he then left the deal without releasing any music with them due to disagreements on his album The Elusive 2. As of November Wiley is in talks with another label.

A-List Records (A-List Music LTD)

In February 2010, Wiley announced he would be bringing together a collective of artists to create a supergroup. A-List consisting of the artists Wiley, J2K, Wrigley, Brazen, Shola Ama, Sadie Ama, Young Kye, Kivanc, Mz Bratt plus others.

The In March 2010 "Midnight Lover" was the first music video to be released by A-List, despite music video, airplay and interest the single was never released.

Influence

Wiley is often cited as the "King of Grime" also "Godfather Of Grime". Other Grime artists have cited Wiley as a big influence in their careers. 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's own record labels

Wiley founded Eskibeat Recordings which is an artist development company for artists in the Grime scene. The label was set up around 2004, however its latest release was 2008.

In 2010 Wiley founded A-List Records (A-List Music LTD.) as a new label to bring young talent into the music game.

He also played a big part in helping start a label Launchpad Music Management with 2 teenagers in which he " title="The Radio Kid">The Radio Kid with them.">released his single The Radio Kid with them.

Discography

;Albums

Treddin' On Thin Ice (2004) XL Recordings

Playtime Is Over (2007) Big Dada

See Clear Now (2008) Asylum/Warner Music

Race Against Time (2009) Eskibeat Recordings

100 percent Publishing (2011) TBA

Evolve Or Be Extinct (2011) TBA

;Compilations

'' Da 2nd Phaze (2006)

'' Grime Wave (2008)

'' The Eski Sound (2010)

;Downloads

'' Zip Files 1-11 (2010)

;Instrumentals

'' Avalanche Music 1: Wiley Instrumentals (2010)

;Mixtapes

'' Tunnel Vision Vol 1-4 (2006)

'' Tunnel Vision Vol 5-6 (2007)

'' Umbrella Vol 1 (2008)

Crew Discography

;Roll Deep

In At The Deep End (2005)

Rules and Regulations (2007)

Return of the Big Money Sound (2008)

Street Anthems (2009)

Winner Stays On (2010)

;A List

A List Album (TBA)

References

External links

Review of 'Never Be Your Woman' on the Daily Music Guide

Wiley on the Grimepedia

Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:English record producers Category:Grime artists Category:English people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Category:English people of Antigua and Barbuda descent Category:Black British musicians Category:People from Bow

Stephen Wiley (born 1958) is recognized as the first artist to have recorded a full-length Christian rap album with his 1985 release on the Brentwood Records label, Bible Break, a fact which was acknowledged by T-Bone (rapper) in his song "Our History" on his own album entitled GospelAlphaMegaFunkyBoogieDiscoMusic in 2002. At the time of this recording, Wiley was a member of the crusade team at Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema Bible Church in Broken Arrow, OK.

Biography

Wiley was born in 1956 and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. A University of Oklahoma graduate, Wiley began a career as a jazz drummer in 1979 and wrote a song called "Basketball". This tune would later go on to be recorded by mainstream rapper Kurtis Blow and become a #71 hit (in 1985). By 1982, Wiley was performing rap music with Christian lyrics at a time when Run DMC's breakthrough to the mainstream was still a year away. In 1984, Wiley took a job as chaplain at a juvenile detention center.

Discography

# 1985 Bible Break Brentwood Music # 1986 " Rappin For Jesus" Brentwood Music # 1987 Rap it Up Brentwood Music # 1989 Get Real Brentwood Music # 1990 Rhythm and Poetry, StarSong Records # 1991 Rhapsody Starsong Records

Citations

Category:Performers of Christian hip hop music Category:Living people Category:1958 births Category:People from Tulsa, Oklahoma

Name	Dizzee Rascal
Landscape	No
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Dylan Kwabena Mills.
Alias	Dizzee Rascal
Born	October 01, 1985
Origin	London, England
Genre	Grime, hip hop, house, dance
Occupation	Rapper, record producer, songwriter, singer
Years active	2000–present
Label	XL, Matador, Dirtee Stank, Definitive Jux
Associated acts	Florence and the Machine, Calvin Harris, Chrome, Guthrie Govan, Alex Turner, Basement Jaxx, UGK, Roll Deep, Armand Van Helden, James Corden, El-P
Url

Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 1 October 1985), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a English rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles. Best known for his number-one hits "Dance wiv Me", "Bonkers", "Holiday", "Dirtee Disco" & "Shout", his debut album, Boy in da Corner, won him the 2003 Mercury Prize. Follow-up albums Showtime, Maths + English and Tongue n' Cheek have all been critically acclaimed and certified gold, the latter going platinum for sales exceeding 300,000 units.

Early life

Mills' father died when he was young, and he was raised in Bow, (East London) for most of his life in a single-parent family by his Ghanaian mother Priscilla, about whom he says: "I had issues as a kid. I was violent and disruptive. The way my mum helped was by finding me a different school every time I got kicked out, always fighting to keep me in the school system".

He attended a series of schools in East London, excluded from four secondary schools in four years – it was a teacher who first called him "Rascal". of which he is now a patron.

Mills supports West Ham United.

Music and style

Dizzee Rascal once told author Ben Thompson in an interview with the Sunday's Observer magazine that “everything I do is for the music – I want to master it like Bruce Lee mastered martial arts."

His music is a mixture of UK Garage and hip-hop beats with an extremely broad palette of influences, ranging from metal guitars to drill and bass synth lines, eclectic samples and even Japanese court music. Dizzee Rascal also makes extensive use of un-coupled octuplets and double and triple couplets in his machine-gun-paced staccato lyrics. Like most grime artists, he uses "beats born of ringtones, video games and staticky pirate-radio sounds" Dizzee's tracks are traditional grime in that the beats are often asymmetrical and make it difficult to dance to his music. His vocal performance is also distinctive; he uses a fast style of rapping which blends elements from garage MCing, conventional rap, grime and ragga. He raps about the same issues a confused generation of youth tends to; broken family, faithless mentors and a lack of support. Dizzee's videos are similar to many grime and garage artists in the UK. They are frenetic and fast, often matching the speed of the rapping; this is especially visible in the videos to "Fix Up, Look Sharp" and "I Luv U". Although his fast style of rapping and his subject matter are nothing more than ordinary in the UK, Dizzee Rascal's diversity nonetheless separates him from other UK rappers. In his song "Brand New Day", Dizzee Rascal used "flat, punching out riddims into cheap PC software, beats born of ringtones, video games, and staticky pirate-radio sounds". Grime is today still considered underground, despite Dizzee's large mainstream exposure.

Career

Experimenting with his decks and styles, he became an amateur DJ, making occasional appearances on a local pirate radio station. Aged 16, he self-produced his first single, "I Luv U". In 2002, he jointly formed the Roll Deep Crew, a 13-piece garage collective, with former school friends. Signed by the XL record label, he signed an additional solo deal.

During his early career, Dizzee worked with his mentor Wiley to create the song 'We Ain't Having It' (which never got released on any albums) and also rapped on some 'Sidewinder' recordings. He made some instrumentals including 'Go' and 'Ho' and 'Streetfighter' which used some music from a video game.

After winning a Sidewinder Award for Best Newcomer MC in 2002, in June 2003 the re-recorded and re-produced by Jacob Freitt single I Luv U was released, becoming a Top 30 hit single.

Dizzee was a judge in the Sky1 show Must Be The Music.

2003–2004: Boy in da Corner

Dizzee's first solo album, Boy in da Corner, was released to universal critical acclaim in August 2003, entering the UK Top 40 at #40. The album would peak at #23. In the same week the album was released, while performing with Roll Deep Crew, the rapper was stabbed six times in Ayia Napa.

Following the success of single "I Luv U" and the album, the second single from Boy in da Corner was "Fix Up, Look Sharp". The single, released in August 2003, gave Dizzee his first UK Top 20 single and also became the biggest hit from his debut album. In September, Dizzee was awarded the prestigious Mercury Prize for the best album of 2003. His unique style, as "words pour out at a high pitch and pace, as if syllables are the only thing that can hold back a scream," have given him a sound that hip hop heads can embrace as something new and original in the hip hop scene.

The second single "Dream", another top 20 hit, was released in November 2004. It sampled (and used the chorus of) Captain Sensible's song "Happy Talk", originally from the makers of Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. The "Dream" music video consisted of a mock 1950s style children's marionette show depicting scenes corresponding to the lyrics about Dizzee's youth; street culture, crime, single teenage mothers, pirate radio and garage clubs.

Later in 2004, Dizzee Rascal was part of Band Aid 20, a group of British musicians who re-recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas?" He did not sing in the song; rather, he rapped two lines of it ("Spare a thought this yuletide for the deprived, if the table was turned would you survive?" and "You ain't gotta feel guilt just selfless, give a little help to the helpless"). Dizzee Rascal was the first person to add to the song since the original was released; this would mark the first time that Dizzee reached the number one spot in the UK Singles Chart, albeit as part of the ensemble.

In 2004, Dizzee Rascal made an international endorsement deal with urban brand Eckō and designed his own shoe with Nike in 2005. and "English" to writing lyrics. The first single off this album, Sirens, was released on 21 May.

The album was one of the 12 nominees for the 2007 Mercury Prize, which ultimately went to The Klaxons' album Myths of the Near Future. During the year, Dizzee worked with cross-genre artist Beck on a remix of the song "Hell Yes", and provided guest vocals on an Arctic Monkeys track, the B-Side to their single "Brianstorm" named "Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend". Dizzee's version of the same song was featured as "Temptation" on his third album.

The official US album was released on 29 April 2008; it contained two tracks not on the European release, but it did not include the track "Pussyole'". It was Dizzee's first album to be released under the Definitive Jux label.

In 2008, Dizzee Rascal recorded a song for suicide charity CALM; the song "Dean" was about a friend of Dizzee's who took his own life. In December of that year, he was arrested following an alleged incident involving a baseball bat in southeast London. He was released on bail to return to a police station later in December.

2009–present: Tongue N' Cheek

festival.]]

Dizzee Rascal released his fourth studio album, Tongue N' Cheek, on 21 September 2009. It included his four number-one hits "Dance Wiv Me", "Holiday", "Bonkers" and "Dirtee Disco". Its release was announced on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where Dizzee Rascal revealed some details about the album, including track information and production. Dizzee recently confirmed in an interview on Radio One, that he would be leaving his grime roots behind, in favour of more mainstream pop; however a new collaboration with drum and bass artists "Chase & Status" titled, "Heavy" begs to differ. In the track Dizzee himself says, "Grime had a little time without me still no grime without me, No life without me, no risky roads, no grime daily" assuring his return to grime. On 23 May 2008, Calvin Harris, whom he collaborated with on the number-one smash "Dance Wiv Me", revealed on his Twitter that he was producing a Dizzee track; at the Evolution Festival, Newcastle, and when on tour supporting The Prodigy, he confirmed that two new singles called "Road Rage" and "Dirtee Cash", both of which featured on the album, would be released. "Dirtee Cash" peaked at #10 and Road Rage was never released as a single.

On the 16th February at the 30th annual Brit Awards Dizzee Rascal won the award for Best British Male. He later performed a mash-up entitled "You Got the Dirtee Love" with Florence and the Machine. This collaboration was released as a charity single the following day and peaked at number 2 in the UK charts.

On the 31st May 2010 Dizzee re-released the album Tongue N' Cheek with a few new tracks on including a song called "Dirtee Disco" which was released on 24 May 2010. The track went to number 1 on the UK music charts.

In August 2010, it was revealed that he was to collaborate with Colombian popstar Shakira on the English version of "Loca", the lead single of her album Sale el Sol. He stated that "I know it sounds a bit mad now, but you'll see it and see what's going on, it's me doing something different man, on a merengue tip." On the week of October 14, 2010, Dizzee made his first appearance on the US Billboard Hot 100 after the song debuted at number 98.

Personal life

In February 2008 Rascal's ex girlfriend Kaya Bousquet, whom he had dated for two years, died in a high speed crash on the M1 motorway; Dizzee was said to be "devastated".

Rascal revealed in 2010 that he plans not to use drugs or alcohol at all in the future. He told The Independent: "I'm not having any alcohol. No weed. I'm not doing anything – except some boxing to release energy.".

Politics

Around 2004, UK newspapers were quoting one particular lyric by Dizzee Rascal – "I'm a problem for Anthony Blair".

Dirtee Stank

Dizzee Rascal has created his own record label, called Dirtee Stank. Dizzee Rascal's explanation of the name is, "The name came from one of the first lyrics I had: 'going on dirty/going on stank…' So I thought 'yeah fuck it, Dirtee Stank.'" Dizzee has stated "I had Dirtee Stank before I had my record deal." although both of his albums and their subsequent singles have been released under XL Recordings. It was not until 2005 that Dizzee Rascal 'revived' the label and made his first signings, Klass A, and Newham Generals. The label's MySpace page states that the ethos of the company is "about bridging the gap between indie, majors and the street. Stank is the way forwards". The label's logo is a picture of flies circling faeces – when asked why this logo was chosen, Dizzee stated that it was the "streetest thing I could think of".

BET Awards

* 2010, Best International Act (Won)

In video games

In PlayStation Home, the PlayStation 3's online community-based service, there was an event dedicated for Dizzee Rascal in the VIP Room of the SingStar themed game space that ran from 24 September 2009 to 9 October 2009. Dizzee performed for the PS Home/SingStar community and answered questions for an hour after the performance. There were also limited time items at this space like a Dizzee Mask. This was available to the European and North American versions of PlayStation Home, however, Dizzee only appeared in the European version answering questions. There is also a SongPack on the SingStore for SingStar that include six of Dizzee's tracks.

Dizzee's track "Fix Up, Look Sharp" is also featured in the video game DJ Hero released on October 27, 2009 in North America and on October 29, 2009 in Europe.

Dizzee's track "Fix Up, Look Sharp" is also featured in the United Kingdom version of the video game Def Jam Rapstar released in Europe on November 5, 2010

Dizzee's track "Bonkers" is also featured in the video game DJ Hero 2 coming out later this year.

References

External links

Dizzee Rascal News at the XL Recordings home page

Category:1985 births Category:BRIT Award winners Category:British people of Ghanaian descent Category:English people of Nigerian descent Category:Living people Category:People from Bow Category:Musicians from London Category:Black British musicians Category:English rappers Dizzee Rascal