DEEP CUTS: WILEY

SPONSORED BY SPOTIFY

What is there left to say about Wiley? Arguably the most written about artist to come out of the grime scene, Wiley has always been a fascinating character. Across 12 or so albums, 13 mixtapes and countless singles, Richard Cowie has given us ingenuity, underground, humour, eccentricity and even moments of potent self-reflection. Not only that, but as both a producer and an emcee, Wiley changed the face of UK music; one of the architects——if not the architect——of grime.

As a member of Pay As U Go Cartel and then Roll Deep, Wiley was pivotal in the crossover period between UK garage and what would ultimately become grime. Over jungle and then garage, he spent years of his youth formulating grime's blueprint——both lyrically and musically. Even though grime's inception can’t be put down to a single date or track, early Wiley productions like "Eskimo" arrived like lightning bolts, sounding like nothing that had come before it.

Now, in 2018, Wiley's just released his latest album, Godfather II, his autobiography dropped recently and now he's announced he'll be playing himself in a new biopic that was announced earlier this year. So, with that in mind, we thought the timing couldn't be more perfect to look back through the Eskiboy's vast back catalogue.

While our Deep Cuts can't be as comprehensive as we'd like, because not all the classic golden-era tracks are available to stream, consider this a primer to point you in the direction of some of the cuts we couldn't add.


Posted on May 30, 2018