Artist: Wiley

He may be known as the Godfather of Grime, but right now Wiley looks set to have the biggest hit of his career with mammoth smash, the electro/ grime/ house hybrid Wearing My Rolex. Emmanuel Ezugwu catches up with Eskiboy in his most revealing, honest interview yet.

So you’re signed with the big boys now, eh?
Yeah. Atlantic Records have a situation set up with Ben Cook, who runs a label called Asylum. Basically me and Bless Beats produced Wearing My Rolex, we sent it through via various channels and they liked it and signed it a few days later.

After Big Dada, were you wary of signing with a major label?
If it puts me in the top 10 spot, then what I do from there is up to me after all this time. Being on a major doesn’t scare me.

Could you see yourself signing an album deal?
I would, but see when I was younger, I wanted grime to blow and I still love grime now. But my mind sometimes thinks ‘Look, stop! Maybe Radio 1 is liking this.’ So I have to tap into that commerciality my way and see if they take it.

Was that the situation with the Roll Deep album?
Exactly! And I feel bad about that because sometimes I think we went too far, but we’re in the motions of a second Roll Deep album that I’m much happier with. Roll Deep now is Wiley, Danny Weed, Target, Scratchy, Brazen and Breeze is there, but not full on. Then me and Skepta try and run Boy Better Know, Roll Deep and ourselves.

What led to the split with Big Dada?
With Big Dada, maybe the album I made was just enough to give them. Maybe I wasn’t trying to make a groundbreaking album; it’s not that I don’t want to make a groundbreaking album, but life takes over. But I’ve got nothing against Big Dada.

So Playtime wasn’t your best yet?
It was better then Treading On Thin Ice and all the rest, but it still weren’t the best I could do. I don’t always put 100% in; I felt like I’ve put 60% in. Afterwards, I might have a few sales and everyone might talk about it. But when you look to Dizzee and Kano, then you realise who really puts 100% in. Maybe if I had made a groundbreaking album... but big up Dizzee because in terms of sales and success he’s the top person and he knows that.

Why didn’t you release Rolex on Eski Recordings?
Because this tune’s not grime is it? The fact that a tune like this got signed to a major is ok, because no grime didn’t get signed. When grime does break that is when I’ll definitely have Eski Beat with whoever - like Roll Deep Recordings with Universal. I didn’t want to give no more grime away.

But isn’t grime is dead, so people keep saying?
If everyone said ‘Grime is dead’ and I said ‘Yeah it is dead,’ it means it’s not dead. It’s like a reverse trick. Remember when everyone said D&B was dead? I left the D&B scene, I was doing jungle and when I came back, man were P’d up with Range Rovers and ting. It weren’t dead, but it flushed out all the idiots and carried on with who was meant to be doing it.

Why do you think artists don’t want to identify as grime?
One day Kano came and said ‘I’m not grime blah, blah, I’m a blah blah’, which I respect him for because he can do anything on any riddim. But now he’s doing a street album called 140 BPM, so that just shows you.

What did you think when Kano got dropped?
It don’t mean nothing. When somebody told me that Kano got dropped I said that’s better for him because you know why? What happens is the label, they start modelling you into what they want you to be and they start making you do what they want you to do. I think Kano is very, very good but I think the beat choices could be different. Not better, but different. But getting dropped for Kano is nothing, to be honest with you, it don’t mean a thing.

You told RWD last time your biggest regret was leaving Nick Denton. Is that still the case?
Yeah. He had a vision that me and Dizzee could both see but obviously Dizzee was a bit more ahead in his songwriting and I wasn’t there yet. But I didn’t have to leave the situation. I’ve realised now I could have just stayed and worked at it and I would have sold more records, I would have been more grounded, I wouldn’t have went through so much stuff, like the stabbings and different stuff.

So what made you want to announce your retirement?
I kept getting into stuff with kids basically and I’m a man. Kids, whether they’re tall, small or not I’m going through stuff with 10, 20, 30 kids. Imagine 10 kids rush me and half kill me, and I go back and lick one of them down and they’re 14. So I said to myself I have to come out of it before I hurt someone or someone hurts me or I go jail, or they go jail, or I end up dead, or they end up dead.

So how do these violent situations happen?
This is what it is; I am a normal human and sometimes people look at you as not human. People might see you on road and just ask you to spit, but you’re busy, so you say no. That turns them against you and it goes from there. Another part of it is they don’t know you. When kids don’t know you, but they do know you, they don’t know whether to say ‘Hello’ or ‘Shut up’. Especially black people because I’m a black boy and when I was younger and I saw Glamma Kid for the first time I was like that. I do know what they’re going through but at the same time, me and them, one of us will die. I think it’s just black boys and ego’s and pride and the way we’ve grown up and the way we want to show each other our thing. When I first became Wiley I was like ’Rah I’m Wiley, you know! I got a grand in my pocket’ or whatever. So I understand.

How do you feel about being seen as the Godfather of Grime?
I think I’m too young to be the Godfather but if they label me a Godfather, that’s very good. People will have their opinion, but if that’s the case, what about Dizzee? Why isn’t he the Godfather?

Let talk about past beefs; Goodz?
Doogz was good. Doogz still is good. Saying that I don’t know his path, I don’t know if he’s gonna have top 10’s or if he’s gonna get an album deal for £100,000 because all I know is what me, Boy Better Know and Roll Deep is doing.

Bashy?
Bashy’s good, but I weren’t into that war as much as people thought, I just thought whatever, that’s a hip hop thing. When I see him today doing the Black Boys things I got respect for him.

Dizzee?
I haven’t had real war with him, it’s just stuff said. He’s like someone who I know one day will be like ‘Rah what’s Wiley doing,’ because we shared that time together.

RWD Forum?
The RWD Forum is a good place because it allows everyone to talk about what they want to talk about. It’s like a newspaper. Sometimes it gets heated, but it’s joke. When I’m on there it reminds me of college and school.

How about new kids – what are your thoughts on Chipmunk?
Yeah, he’s good; Chipmunk and Ice Kid are two kids of the future. Griminal as well, and Maverick. There’s a few, but Chipmunk, he’s not stupid and the way he’s coming out with bars is amazing. I hope he succeeds and I know he will as a matter of fact.

Bassline?
I don’t understand the bassline hype but I appreciate what it is. I prefer an electro-y thing really. I remember Slimzee used to play [it] ages ago. It’s good but you might not catch me doing it.

How’s being a dad for the second time?
You’re working for two children and not yourself anymore. It’s about them and what they need and what you have to do for them before they just run outta control and blame you if you wasn’t being a parent.

If you weren’t doing grime what would you be doing?
Jungle. I wish I never left jungle nowadays. But I was too young and the scene had already been established before I got there. But I wish I never left it and I wish it had never changed from jungle. I had the best time of my life in music in that drum and bass, jungle scene.

And if you weren’t doing music?
I’d be rich still. Maybe not legally but I’ll still be rich.

Raj Kapone talks to Bless beats and Wiley about the biggest track of 2008...

“We knew it would be big, but not this big!” states East London producer Bless Beats in a greasy spoon café in the heart of Bow. “I’ve just come up with a new sound and people are liking it.” That’s a bit of an understatement when you consider the ‘new sound’ in question is the electro/ grime/ house hybrid that has spawned Rolex, Skepta’s Rolex Sweep and its corresponding dance which already has a whole heap of fans.

“Bless has found the formula,” Wiley reveals of the experimental music that has taken BB and himself out of their grimy comfort sound. “You’ve gotta venture out and experiment,” Bless adds. “There’s no rules to say you can’t do whatever.” And in a scene that is quick to jump on an artist’s back if they stray from the norm, the new tunes have surprisingly been almost universally accepted. “Everyone in my hood would skank to it and even better is that people in offices are skanking to it too!” But what about Bless, has he been perfecting the countdown and circular motion yet? “Of course I have!” he quickly responds. “But everyone’s doing it, so it must be a good tune. It’s moving.” As is Bless, who as well as linking with Asylum for the single, has also signed a publishing deal with Sony, and has a whole bag of high profile remixes in the pipeline “I work so far in advance that I even forget what I’ve done. But you should be able to hear my beats on Quincy’s You Don’t Know The Half Of It, Lauren Mason’s Keepin It Blonde and of course Wiley’s Grime Wave.” With the likes of Lethal B and Asher D also hollering for beats and singles, mixtapes and albums all on the way, 2008 looks like it will be very Bless for Beats.

The single Wearing My Rolex is out 21 April digitally and 5 May physically. Check out MySpace.com/eskiboywiley

RWD Magazine

myspace.com/eskiboywiley

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