# Wiley (musician)
**Wiley** is the stage name of Richard Kylea Cowie (born 1979), a British grime producer and MC from Bow in east London who is widely described as the godfather of grime[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life). He first found success on the [UK garage](https://www.edgepedia.org/uk-garage) scene with the Pay As U Go Cartel, founded the crew Roll Deep, and developed the production style known as Eskibeat, a stripped-down, 140 bpm sound that helped define grime as a genre[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life) • [2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). His hit singles include "Wearing My Rolex" and "Heatwave", and he was appointed MBE for services to music in 2018[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Kylea Cowie, 1979; grew up in Bow, east London[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life) |
| Signature sound | Eskibeat (also called Eskimo Sound), a stripped-down garage style built around 140 bpm drums and bass lines, developed from about 2000 and most influential from 2002 to 2005[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/) • [3](https://www.complex.com/music/a/son-raw/a-journey-through-wiley-eskibeat) |
| Crews | Pay As U Go Cartel (UK garage), then Roll Deep, founded by Wiley in 2002[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime) |
| Biggest hits | "Wearing My Rolex" (No. 2, UK, 2008); "Heatwave" (first and, to date, only UK No. 1, 2012); four top-10 singles in 2012/2013 selling 1.5 million copies in total[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/) |
| Genre-building | Created the Eskimo Dance club night and used his Rinse FM show to showcase the emerging grime sound[5](https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/wiley-nme-interview-2017-1942160) • [2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/) |
| Honor | MBE, awarded March 2, 2018, for services to music[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/) |
## Early life and influences
Wiley was born in 1979 and grew up in Bow, east London[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life). His father, Richard Cowie Senior, was a musician in London's 1980s reggae sound systems and kept studio equipment at home, including a drum machine, keyboards, sequencers, a bass guitar, and record decks[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime). Wiley has said his father is his biggest inspiration and mentor; in one of his earliest memories, his father's band was playing a heavy reggae bassline in their Kent home and the young Wiley began banging on cardboard boxes[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
The local pirate radio scene gave him his first audience. [Rinse FM](https://www.edgepedia.org/rinse-fm), set up in 1994 by his schoolmate Dean "Slimzee" Fullman and Gordon "Geeneus" Warren, was pivotal: until then Wiley and his friends were known only in their own neighborhood, but Rinse let them reach listeners across the city[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime). One of the earliest recordings of Wiley online is a Rinse FM segment from November 17, 1996, on which a 17-year-old Cowie freestyles over jungle beats alongside DJ Target and the MCs Maxwell D, Blade, and Riddles[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
## From garage to grime
Wiley began producing jungle as part of the SS (Silver Storm) Crew, then joined the UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel, appearing on *Top of the Pops* to perform their single "Champagne Dance"[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime). Jungle instrumentals of the era ran at 160 to 200 beats per minute; when Wiley settled on 140 bpm grime beats at the beginning of 2000, the slower tempo must have felt deliberate after those speeds[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). He stripped garage music down to its essentials, developing the drums and bass lines, and called the result "Eskibeat" or Eskimo Sound[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
Writers on the style describe it as a layered response to several traditions at once: an [East London](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-london) answer to dancehall's millennial anthems grafted onto garage's uptempo rhythms, a reply to the clean digital production of American producers such as [Swizz Beatz](https://www.edgepedia.org/swizz-beatz), Timbaland, and [The Neptunes](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-neptunes), and a return of rave's brash synthesized sounds to the hardcore continuum[3](https://www.complex.com/music/a/son-raw/a-journey-through-wiley-eskibeat). His track "Eskimo" became a major hit on London's underground, spread in large part through his own show on the then-pirate station Rinse FM, and artists from across the city began making music in the new style[5](https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/wiley-nme-interview-2017-1942160).
In 2002 Wiley founded his own crew, Roll Deep, which quickly became a leading act of the new scene as it became known as grime[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime). The Guardian credits Roll Deep with launching the careers of several stars, including [Dizzee Rascal](https://www.edgepedia.org/dizzee-rascal) and [Tinchy Stryder](https://www.edgepedia.org/tinchy-stryder)[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life). Early songs such as Wiley's "Wot U Call It" and Skepta's "That's Not Me" marked grime's position as something distinct from the mainstream pop of the time[6](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.70087).
## Community building and mentoring
Wiley's role extended beyond his own records. To give grime artists somewhere to perform live, he created a club night called Eskimo Dance; his manager John Woolf of A-List Management told *Pollstar* that any artist in grime you could name had at some point performed there, listing Dizzee Rascal, Skepta, Devlin, Stormzy, and JME among them[5](https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/wiley-nme-interview-2017-1942160) • [2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). He formed a productive partnership with a young Dizzee Rascal, introducing him to the manager who would land the album deal for *Boy in da Corner*, the record that eventually won grime a Mercury Award[5](https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/wiley-nme-interview-2017-1942160). In later years he turned up at a Westwood 1Xtra session with the then-unknown Chipmunk and a 14-year-old MC called Ice Kid, insisting both be given microphone time[5](https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/wiley-nme-interview-2017-1942160).
A 2017 Guardian profile credits him, through advice, free studio time, or career breaks, with supporting numerous artists who became household names, including Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Chip, [Kano](https://www.edgepedia.org/kano-british-musician), Skepta, and JME[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime). He also set up the A-List label for developing upcoming talent and Elusive Entertainment, on which he issued *Chill Out Zone* (2011)[7](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wiley-mn0000682814). Producers sought him out as well: the British producer Flava D began making beats for Wiley, Ghetts, and Merky Ace after contacting him through social media[8](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/i-thought-i-was-amazing-at-making-garage-then-i-tried-to-make-dnb-flava-d-on-why-drum-and-bass-is-the-toughest-genre-to-produce).
## Mainstream chart success
"Wearing My Rolex", released in 2008, peaked at No. 2 on the UK singles chart and marked Wiley's first proper mainstream success; his manager recalled that no grime artist had yet had a real hit single at that point[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). In August 2012 "Heatwave", featuring Ms. D, became his first solo No. 1[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life) • [2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). Between 2012 and 2013 he had four top-10 hits in succession, "Heatwave", "Can You Hear Me", "Reload", and "Lights On", selling 1.5 million singles in total[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). By 2018 he had sold more than 4 million records across a career spanning two decades[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
His album *Godfather* (2017) was his first UK Top 10 album, and a follow-up, *Godfather 2*, was announced for release in 2018[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). He releases music on his own label, CTA Records, distributed through ADA, and owns his masters[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
## Recognition and the wider scene
Wiley received an MBE on March 2, 2018, presented by Prince William at [Buckingham Palace](https://www.edgepedia.org/buckingham-palace), and went straight from the ceremony to a headline show in Brixton in a tracksuit[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/). Academic work on grime treats him as a founder of the genre: a study of grime's collaborative networks describes him and Dizzee Rascal forming groups of rappers who shared a microphone on pirate radio sets like Rinse FM, and notes that some of the most notable grime clashes occurred in the early 2020s between "Grime godfather Wiley" and [Stormzy](https://www.edgepedia.org/stormzy)[6](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.70087). His position as a "Godfather" of the scene has, in the words of one doctoral study of grime performance, been widely accepted within it[9](https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/30170/1/MUS_thesis_deLaceyA_2019.pdf).
His reach extended beyond grime's own circle. He collaborated with [Ed Sheeran](https://www.edgepedia.org/ed-sheeran) on the latter's 2011 EP *No 5 Collaborations Project*, all eight tracks of which featured grime MCs; its success won Sheeran his first record deal[10](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/05/wiley-on-his-final-album-i-need-to-not-let-grime-die-on-the-way-out). In 2008 he also supported [Mark Ronson](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-ronson) on Jay-Z's six-date UK tour, and he has toured venues from London's Scala to [Brixton Academy](https://www.edgepedia.org/brixton-academy) and The O2 arena[2](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/).
## References
1. [Wiley: soundtrack of my life, The Guardian (23 March 2013)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/24/wiley-roll-deep-soundtrack-life)
2. [Wiley: Meet The Godfather Of Grime, Pollstar News (6 April 2018)](https://news.pollstar.com/2018/04/06/wiley-meet-the-godfather-of-grime-2/)
3. [A Journey Through Wiley's Eskibeat, Complex (6 August 2019)](https://www.complex.com/music/a/son-raw/a-journey-through-wiley-eskibeat)
4. [Wiley: the enigmatic Godfather of Grime, The Guardian (24 January 2017)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime)
5. [Wiley: The godfather of grime on making his last ever album, NME (2017)](https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/wiley-nme-interview-2017-1942160)
6. [The Ties That Rhyme: Duality in Symbolic and Structural Networks of Grime Music, The British Journal of Sociology (2026)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.70087)
7. [Wiley Biography, Discography, Albums & Expert Reviews, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wiley-mn0000682814)
8. [Flava D on why drum & bass is the toughest genre to produce, MusicRadar (2025)](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/i-thought-i-was-amazing-at-making-garage-then-i-tried-to-make-dnb-flava-d-on-why-drum-and-bass-is-the-toughest-genre-to-produce)
9. [Level Up: Live Performance and Collective Creativity in Grime Music, Alex de Lacey, Goldsmiths PhD thesis (2020)](https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/30170/1/MUS_thesis_deLaceyA_2019.pdf)
10. [Wiley on his final album: 'I need to not let grime die on the way out', The Guardian (5 June 2020)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/05/wiley-on-his-final-album-i-need-to-not-let-grime-die-on-the-way-out)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Music scenes › Transnational genre scenes › Hip hop scenes worldwide › Artists, groups, and people: Hip hop scenes worldwide › United Kingdom rap (grime, drill, road rap, boom bap)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license