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Wiley (rapper)

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Wiley
Wiley (right) in New York in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Richard Kylea Cowie
Also known as	Eskiboy, Phaze One, Wiley Kat
Born	19 January 1979 (1979-01-19) (age 29)
Origin	Bow, E3, East London, UK
Genre(s)	Grime, Garage

Wiley (a.k.a Eskiboy), real name Richard Kylea Cowie (born 19 January 1979) is a British rapper of Trinidadian descent ^[1]and active producer from Bow, East London.^[2] He has made many solo releases, and as part of groups, sometimes using aliases. Wiley has created his own musical genre, which he calls "Eski", and which is largely associated with the Grime genre. Wiley was also a founding member of the Roll Deep crew. His MC name is based on the video game villain Doctor Wiley from the Megaman series. (Megaman being another MC from the So Solid Crew). Roll Deep released their debut album "In At The Deep End" in 2005 which has been certified silver (60,000+ sales), with two singles making the UK Top 40. His debut album Treddin' On Thin Ice was released on XL Recordings, a commercial disappointment however. Wiley left XL and is now currently signed to Big Dada Recordings, where he has recently released his third album "Playtime Is Over" on 04/06/2007. The album went into the UK chart at number 71.

1 Early work
2 Short-lived retirement
3 The Race Against Time
4 Grime Wave
5 Discography
6 References
7 External links

Early work

Wiley first became well known in the East London underground garage scene during the late 1990s, when he was a member of the Pay As You Go Cartel, who had some limited UK chart success. He also co-produced "Nicole's Groove" as Phaze One, and appeared on several tracks by other artists. He made numerous vinyl releases, often driving around London himself selling to record shops. One of these, "Eskimo", was a huge success on the underground scene, reputedly selling in the thousands, where most other artists within the scene could only sell 500-1000 copies of their tracks. He regularly appeared on East London pirate radio stations playing grime tracks, which helped increase his profile. He still does underground events, like Lord Of The Mics , Eskimo Dance, and also does Sidewinder but with his group Roll Deep, which he left Pay As You Go Cartel to create.

Short-lived retirement

Wiley announced his retirement from the microphone on 22 January, 2007. In a statement released to RWDMag.com [2], he said: "I’m retiring. I’m serious. I’m tired, really tired. I just want to be normal. I’m 28 and I’m tired." It was short-lived, and he began to take a different view of the comparisons to Jay-Z. He now views the 10 year gap between him and Jay-Z as a positive thing, and is now working on several mixtapes, including Tunnel Vision volumes 6-10, £10 An Hour Volume 1, and Umbrella Volume 1 which are all set to be released in 2007.

The Race Against Time

'The Race Against Time' is supposedly Wiley's fourth studio album. With the first single being released on his MySpace; 'Where U Gonna Hide'. The proof that this is an album track is when he opens with the line: "On this album I put 100 percent in". The album is due to be released in June 2008 (his MySpace name was/is: 'RACE AGAINST TIME JUN 08').

Grime Wave

'Grime Wave' is meant to be Wiley's fourth or fifth album (depending on the release date earlier/later than 'The Race Against Time') but little is known. Around November/December Wiley's MySpace name was 'GRIME WAVE FEB 08' but many believe that the album has been renamed to 'The Race Against Time' and the release date pushed to June 2008. This will be updated when more is known about 'Grime Wave'.