Wiley

In January 2019, Wiley released "Boasty" featuring Idris Elba, Stefflon Don, and Sean Paul. The song was one of the biggest dancehall releases of the year.

Wiley is considered a pioneer in the British underground music scene with a prolific work rate and a versatile music artist with many crossover hits. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music.

He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Music.

In March 2016, Wiley announced that he would be releasing an eleventh album, titled Godfather, and that the album would include 16 songs, 3 of which were to be released as singles. The album was released on 13 January 2017. The album entered at number 9 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Wiley's highest-charting album of his career. On 16 February 2017, Wiley won an "Outstanding Contribution to Music" award by NME Magazine for his album Godfather.

In late 2017, Wiley announced his next album, titled Godfather II. The first single, "I Call the Shots" featuring Jme, was released on 3 November 2017, alongside the album's pre-order and track listing. The album was released on 27 April 2018.

Wiley is currently signed to Big Dada and Boy Better Know. He has a joint venture distribution deal with Warner Music Group under two brand names, one being Wiley, and the other being Chasing the Arts records, as of 2017.

Wiley's autobiography, Eskiboy, was published in November 2017.

In 2015, Wiley released an EP on his new record label called Chasing The Art Records, In 2016 Wiley and his manager John Woolf signed a distribution deal with Warner Music Group to release some music by Wiley and future artists that sign to the label.

Wiley began recording his tenth studio album Snakes and Ladders in 2013, the first single from the album Flyin was released in August 2013 and towards the end of that year he leaked a track list for the album. However he later confirmed his intention in February 2014 to scrap the record and start again as he was unhappy with it saying it "needs to be epic or there's no point". The first single from the newly recorded album, On A Level, was released on 25 September 2014 by Big Dada. Wiley later featured on Ay Yeah So What, and in 2015 released the non-album single Chasing the Art.

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:

On 4 April 2013, Wiley revealed that he was leaving his record label Warner following a dispute about his new album The Ascent. Admitting he was unhappy with their choice of next single from the record, he tweeted: "My label are doing 'Lights On' next but I do not like that so you will not see me in the video."

On 11 October 2013, over 2,000 Wiley fans signed a petition, which was presented to Tower Hamlets' mayor Lutfur Rahman, requesting that a monument to the artist be erected in Bow.

On 19 October 2013, Wiley was awarded 'Best Male' at the MOBO Award's 18th Anniversary.

In January 2012, he released his ninth studio album Evolve or Be Extinct on his 33rd birthday. It peaked at number 86 on the UK Albums Chart. Music videos were released for several tracks on the album including "Boom Blast", "Evolve or Be Extinct" and "Only Human". A separate promo song "Hottie" was released on Valentine's Day, featuring Roll Deep member Manga. Wiley began releasing grime freestyles over grime beats and releasing them for free via Twitter. This collection was released chronologically with the names "Step 1", "Step 2" and furthermore. After "Step 10", all of the freestyles were compiled and released as a mixtape titled It's All Fun and Games Till, Vol.1. Alongside working on his "Step" freestyles, various other promo songs were released. This continuous releasing of music saw him receive the attention from major recording label Warner Music Group. Wiley carried on with his "Step" freestyles, releasing Vol. 2 of It's All Fun and Games Till.

In June 2012, Wiley released his summer single "Heatwave", featuring Ms D and produced by Rymez to British radio, with the music video released at the end of June via YouTube. The song received major radio airplay and was a highly anticipated release, weeks before the music video was even released. The song quickly received over 2 million hits. On 5 August 2012, "Heatwave" peaked at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, making this Wiley's first solo number 1, selling an impressive 114,000 copies. Shortly after, Wiley confirmed in an interview on the Official Chart Show that he will be releasing a further two singles and a new album in the coming months. His next single, announced in late August, titled "Can You Hear Me" featuring Skepta, JME and Ms D, was released in October 2012. The song was renamed to "Can You Hear Me (Ayayaya)" and premiered on 24 August on DJ Target's BBC Radio 1Xtra show.

Wiley then announced on Twitter that the third single off his next album, "Hands in the Air", will feature Chip, Ice-Kid and Tulisa for release on 13 September 2012. The song originally featured Emeli Sandé. However, Wiley then tweeted that his next single would feature Rita Ora instead of Tulisa. On 27 September, the name of the album was confirmed to be The Ascent. The tracklist for the album was revealed on 11 October via Instagram, displaying 16 tracks. Also on 11 October, Wiley announced he no longer intended to perform at universities and student unions citing professional concerns and stating that he "had better things to do". Despite this, Wiley played a club night at SUSU, the University of Southampton Students' Union, on 25 January 2013 as part of the Ministry of Sound Raveout tour. Afterwards, Wiley took to Twitter to express his disappointment with the event, stating, "A proper crowd would [have] loved it tbh and tbf".

In 2010, Wiley founded A-List Records (A-List Music LTD). On 26 & 27 September 2012, Wiley signed J2K & Ice-Kid to A-List Records. Two weeks after, he had also signed Scratchy Demus, Manga and A. Star (the younger brother of singer Angel) to the record label. Wrigley from Manchester is also signed to the label. Producers include Rymez who is behind big hits "Heatwave" and "Can You Hear Me?" and Flava D.

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", which had received some airplay beforehand. 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 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 8th studio album Evolve or Be Extinct which was released on 19 January 2012. "Link Up" is produced by Wiley's protege Nana Rogues and the official "Link Up" single was released in September 2011.

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.

In February 2010, Wiley formed a UK supergroup/collective called A-List. This group consists of R&B singers and sisters Shola and Sadie Ama; grime artists Wiley, J2K & Brazen all from Roll Deep; Mz. Bratt, Wrigley, Margs, Young Kye and Kivanc. Their producer is Bless Beats and their DJ is JJ.

A-List released their first music video on 23 March 2010 called "Midnight Lover", featuring Captin. Despite receiving airplay, the single was never released. The last 20 seconds of the music video is the A-List song "Make My Own Money".

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 far more creative control. The album includes the 2009 hit "Too Many Man" featuring Boy Better Know.

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 origin to break into the mainstream. In the same month, Wiley released his fourth album 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". 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.

In 2006, Wiley released his second album Da 2nd Phaze on the Boy Better Know label. 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, which is believed to signal the end of the Wiley-Lethal feud.

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". 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."

Wiley has been with a number of record labels. In 2004, Eskibeat Recordings was formed by Wiley to bring young grime artists into the spotlight as well as release his own music under the label. In 2005, Wiley helped form the label Boy Better Know which is owned and run by Jme (Jamie Adenuga) and his older brother Skepta (Joseph Adenuga).

Wiley first tasted success as a member of 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.

From 2001 onwards, Wiley began producing instrumental singles on his Wiley Kat Recordings label. The most famous ones are the "Eskimo", "Avalanche", "Ice Rink" and "Snowman". These led to a solo record deal with XL Recordings. Wiley also secretly produced an unreleased instrumental named "Right Under Their Noses" in 2002, which came into the limelight during an interview with Pan TV's Harry Riley.

As a teenager, Wiley featured on pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM and drum and bass stations. 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. 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 DJ Slimzee, DJ Geeneus and MCs Major Ace and Plague A Lero from Brown Brothers whom Wiley occasionally deejayed for. God's Gift from Deck Collecters Crew, Flow Dan 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.

When Cowie was a teenager in the early-1990s, he began to sell crack cocaine and heroin. Cowie was introduced to drug dealing from a DJ friend who was making a lot of money at the time. Cowie stopped dealing drugs when a local drug dealer who was much older than him began to threaten him and his friend. Cowie 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, a reference to a Thundercats character, and later simply Wiley.

Richard Kylea Cowie Jr, MBE (born 19 January 1979 in London), better known by his stage name Wiley and in his early career Wiley Kat, is a British grime MC, rapper, songwriter, DJ and record producer from Bow, East London. He is regarded as a key figure in the creation of grime music and often labelled the "Godfather of Grime". In the early 2000s, he independently released a series of highly influential eskibeat instrumentals on white label vinyl, most notably the first in the series "Eskimo" and rose to fame as a grime MC both for his solo work and for material released with his crew Roll Deep.

Cowie was born on 19 January 1979 in Bow, East London. He is of Trinidadian and Antiguan descent. Cowie's father, Richard Cowie Senior was a reggae artist during Cowie's youth in the 1980s and introduced Cowie to early hip-hop such as The Sugarhill Gang. Cowie's interest in music began when his father introduced him to the drums. Cowie 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. Cowie 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." Cowie eventually moved back to Bow to live with his father when he was eleven years old.