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's interest in music began when his father introduced him to the drums. 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. He is of Trinidadian and Antiguan descent.
#MATHS ENGLISH DIZZEE RASCAL ZIP SERIES#
#MATHS ENGLISH DIZZEE RASCAL ZIP ZIP#
2.4 2010–2011: Zip Files, iTunes Offload and 100% Publishing.2.3 2008–2009: Grime Wave, See Clear Now and Race Against Time.2.2 2004–2007: Treddin' on Thin Ice, Da 2nd Phaze and Playtime Is Over.On 24 July 2020, Wiley made a series of posts and videos on social media, widely condemned as anti-semitic. In 2008, a stabbing left him with a visible scar on the left side of his face. Wiley has been stabbed on several occasions. Regarded as 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. 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. 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 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.
In the early 2000s, he independently released a series of highly influential eskibeat instrumentals on white label vinyl, such as the first in the series " Eskimo" and is known as a grime MC both for his solo work and for material released with his crew Roll Deep. He is considered a key figure in the creation of grime music and often labelled the "Godfather of Grime". MBE (born 19 January 1979), better known by his stage name Wiley and in his early career Wiley Kat, is a British rapper, songwriter, DJ and record producer from Leytonstone, East London.