Wiley V Dizzee – Who Wins, really?

“Hey Dil, what’s going on brother? I’ve got to a stage where I wouldn’t never judge no other/ No race, no creed, no human, no colour/ Nothin’ ain’t changed except I’m the best now/ It don’t matter, I’m still ya big brother…I tell you Dil, it was hard to back you/ I still done it/ Overground, underground, I still run it/ Number one grime, I still run it/ We ain’t in beef so pick up the phone and ring me, I’m still rolling…” (Wiley, ‘Letter To Dizzee’, 2007)

“A couple of years ago, in my road youth days/ I was into pirate radio, I guess it was a phase/ There was this particular MC man/ Who was an older in my ends and I thought he was the Dan/ So I started rolling with him kinda like a little brother/ My cousin used to say he was a pussy undercover/ I didn’t think it was nothing more than jealousy/ But I wish I would have listened every time he told me…” (Dizzee, ‘Pussyhole’, 2007)

Two songs getting the grime scene real dirty recently are of course Dizzee’s ‘Pussyhole’ and Wil’s ‘Letter To Dizzee.’ Where Diz shrugs that ‘Wiley just thinks’ ‘Pussyhole’ is about him’, ‘Letter’ is less a direct diss to Dizz, more a reflective, almost regretful look over their former friendship. With the Eskiboy getting more than a few digs in of course. During a recent interview with me for RWD, Wiley told me he thinks that it was Diz putting too much faith in him that caused their friendship to falter. “He looked up to me, he thought I was Superman but I didn’t pretend to be. So him looking up to me, thinking I’m Superman, that’s him. This is what Dizzee thinks, ‘I’ve got money, I’m a millionaire. I’m the best deh deh deh.’ You’re not; Scorcher, Ghetto and Kano are better than you. Money has turned him maybe? I don’t know. It turns everyone… slightly.”


Ok, so let me start by saying that I really wish Dizzee and Wiley would make nice and do a track together. How crazy would that be? Like Nas and Jay-Z finally reuniting after THAT beef, getting these two E3 MC’s back on the same beat would be like the resurrection of Biggie and Pac, the reunion of Britney and Justin, the return to Presidency for Clinton... okay, so maybe I’m overblowing things a smidge here, but lets pause for one moment and reflect on all that these two have done for the UK scene:

Dizzee ‘Dylan Mills’ Rascal took undiluted, unashamed, straight-up grime to the Mercury’s and beyond. American artists name-check the Devons Rd rhymer, the Arctics deign to duet with him, while fashion rags and broadsheets queue up to dissect his genius. ‘Boy In Da Corner’ remains the benchmark for all those that follow; nothing quite captured the UK underground experience like ‘Boy…’ Alien, eccentric and often-times odd, the album is the true definition of definitive. Want to know what inner-city, young black boys were thinking and feeling in 2003? Then reach for that bright yellow album cover featuring the Nike-wearing, 19 year-old making devil horns out of his fingers. Nowadays, Diz gets everyone from UGK to Lily Allen on his albums, tours with the Chilli Peppers and headlines festivals. The boy from Bow did good. Real good.

Wiley ‘Richard Kylea Cowie’ Kat’s status is similarly assured; from ‘90s garage classics like ‘Nicole’s Groove’ to genre-shifting singles like ‘Eskimo’, he’s invented and innovated like no one before or since. He’s clashed Kano and Lethal Bizzle, produced Jammer’s ‘Murkle Man’ (among a multitude of others) and performed almost all over the world. Roll Deep went silver (celebrate that), Eskimo Dance still pulls in punters but perhaps more importantly he’s helped the scene to sustain itself by nurturing artists like Dizzee, Tinchy Stryder, Taliban Trim and, more recently, JME and Skepta. Who knows, if it weren’t for Wiley taking him under his wing and later introducing him to manager Nick Denton, maybe Rascal would just be Dylan Mills, any boy from Bow (although given Diz’ progeny, that’s highly, highly doubtful). But while he hasn’t sold on the scale of the Rascal, when it comes to making music, Wiley’s been almost pathologically industrious. In the last year or so, he’s released second album ‘Second Phase’ and a flurry of mixtapes in the form of the Tunnel Vision 1-5’ series. He’s also readied his third official album ‘Playtime Is Over’, due on in June on Big Dada, and is currently completing ‘Tunnel Vision: 6’, Umbrella: 1’ and ‘£10 An Hour - 1.’ It’s a lot, as he himself would say.

The two at any one time have been on top. Wiley, the ‘Godfather of Grime’ and Dizzee, the plucky poet whose charismatic manner and ingenious lyricism, have both been brilliant, whether together in the Roll Deep days or alone during their solo careers. But when Diz and Wiley signed to XL Records, managed by the same person, at the same time, it was inevitable one of them would succeed where the other would, not fail necessarily, but fall short. For Wiley, the one reluctant to do press and promo, it was the latter category – although, to be fair ‘Boy In Da Corner’ was a superior album to ‘Treddin’ On Thin Ice.’ Where Diz was unabashedly experimental, Wiley sat back a little, relying, perhaps, on reputation to secure sales. Plus, he didn’t have ‘Fix Up’ or ‘I Luv U’ or ‘Stop Dat’ up his Iceberg sleeves or tucked under his Hirache Blues. Where Diz was progressive, in some ways Wiley was regressive, including just snippets of ‘Ice Cream’, ‘Avalanche’ and ‘Eskimo’, tracks that could have far better matched Diz than ‘Pies’ ever did.

But, after that argument in Ayia Napa, the two have rarely spoken or seen each other. While Wiley may left both XL and Denton’s management over three years ago, like Bin Laden and Bush, one still can’t be mentioned without the other somehow coming up in conversation.

So now, next month, the former friends go head to head. Releasing third albums at the same time, the grime scene is watching to see who will come out on top. Well, sales-wise with a larger label and a marketing and press campaign on the scale of a Sean Dot Carter, Diz’ success is assured. Wiley can’t expect to compete on that level. But critically, who will make the cut?

‘Playtime Is Over’ shows Will is ready to school street scholars on how to come top of the class in this here grime game. The Kat definitely gets his cream on a slew of ice-cold classics including recent heaters like ‘EskiBoy’, ‘Johnny Was A Bad Boy’ and ‘Gangsters’. However, it’s on more recent and revealing creations that he particularly impresses. Letter To Dizzee, Baby Girl and Nothing About Me are a trio of tunes that reveal a more disingenuous side to his complex character. ‘I get a big pain in my chest if I don’t see you,’ he tells year-old daughter Leah. Nothing meanwhile contains timely reflection on the violent crime that has been such a large part of his life. ‘Didn’t realise I was getting stabbed with a knife, I’m still here thank God,’ he sighs of his 14 stab wounds. Conversely, straight up smashes that deliver reload-worthy bars and beats like Getalong Gang, Flyboy, Bow E3 and 50/50 are guaranteed to get gun-fingers flying. Whether Wiley will ever get the true acclaim he deserves we’ll have to see, but for effort and achievement, Playtime gets full marks.

I can’t you unfortunately tell you what Dizzee’s album, ‘Maths And English’ is like. I haven’t heard it. The record label, can’t or won’t let me hear it. I don’t know why, when other journalists have been duly summoned for playbacks. Disregarding even my freelance work (inc. Guardian, i-D, Big Issue, Cosmo and, occasionally, US heavy-hitters XXL and Vibe) and despite editing RWD, the magazine that first featured Dizzee, like, ever in the world, his label XL are consistently ‘busy.’ I gotta say I find it weird that the label hasn’t had time to play us the album. All that I can assume is that they don’t want RWD to hear it because they’re simply not interested in talking to the UK urban scene. Maybe there’s some ‘beef’ we don’t know about. Or another urban has the exclusive. But considering RWD is the only title in our sector to have an ABC (30,000 plus) and one of the largest urban websites (500,000 unique monthly users), it’s weird they won’t play us it, right? More than just Dizzee, we’ve supported his label Dirty Stank by featuring signees Newham Generals and Diz several times over the last year or so. So, I don’t know and I don’t understand. I’m sure if things don’t go to plan and he doesn’t sell half a million plus, XL will come crawling back to the scene that’s been there since day dot. Maybe we’ll care, maybe we won’t. Right now… But yeah, lead single ‘Sirens’ is good, excellent in fact, while ‘Pussyhole’ is ok – sampling Rob Base and DJ Ez Rock’s ‘It Takes Two’ beat (hmm, wonder if that’s related to he and Wiley somehow?) – there’s something about Dizzee’s voice that remains remarkable. Flow-wise, from the few tracks I’ve heard, he’s not doing a lot, but I can’t make a judgement on the album if I haven’t heard it now, can I? No doubt Diz doesn't know, or probably care, who has and hasn't heard 'Maths & English', so this isn't some attack against him. I just wanna hear the album, is all!

Sorry, right now the jury is out. I know that Wiley continues to be tied closely to the grime scene (even going on the RWD forum recently to argue with 14 year-olds) while Dizzee is more likely to be found at dubstep night >>FWD than at a Sidewinder/ Styleslut/ Dirty Canvas style night. I know that Wiley is confident he’s about to better Dizzee: “His success made me get off my arse to be honest with you,” he told me. “Today, I listen to him and I think, ‘Yeah, I’m good now’. I think he has lost it. He’s lost that hunger.”

Guess we’ll have to wait till June 4th to find out, eh? But either way, I just wish they'd make up and make music together. Just once, one song or one show together. Cause no one really wins, whoever sells the most, when we could be missing out on one of the best tracks to never hit the scene.

Below: The Good Ole Days - Wiley, Dizz, Demon, Tinchy Stryder, Maxwell D, Gods Gift and Lady Fury set at pirate station, Déjà Vu, some time around 2002.