NFTR landed arguably their biggest guest yet on the interview show, with none other than Grime’s godfather Wiley stepping in for a chat with Posty, Vis and Chams.
Everyone knows how rare Wiley interviews are, with the OG notorious for his no shows. However, he sits down in his most revealing interview for a while, dropping off various knowledge darts.
The interview is over an hour long and even though every second of that is valuable, we can already hear you: “too long, didn’t watch”. Don’t worry though, because GRM and our guys Griff and Jaik have got you. Pree the 11 things we learnt from Wiley’s NFTR below.
1. Wiley lives in Cyprus
“I’m living in Cyprus, working in London”, Wiley revealed, in “a nice little set up”. Don’t get it twisted though, Wiley knows the importance of his East London heritage and is posted out here on the regs.
2. Wishes he could reconnect with Dizzee (but probably won’t)
Wiley said, “There’s nothing in between us big enough, or reason enough for us not to”. He went into further detail about their initial falling out too, revealing that the beef started due to Dizzee’s position as a “young leader” and their differences as artists. They last spoke in 2006.
3. His favourite grime MC ever is Kano or Devlin
“That’s like grime MC normal”, Will said. He claimed that Devlin was too good and, as such, gets overlooked, perhaps surprising considering their prior war with each other.
4. The first clash he knows he lost was with Durrty Goodz
Wiley revealed hilariously, “‘Cos I’m a yardie, I knew I lost”. However, he isn’t totally convinced he lost against Crazy Titch.
5. Found the Chip and Bugzy clash hilarious
“That war occurred because Bugzy was edged on, probably by Jammer because of Lord Of The Mics”, he said possibly tongue in cheek. Wiley sympathised with Chip and said he didn’t have to do it, but respects Bugzy as the top darg in Manchester. He said he didn’t know who Bugzy was before the clash.
6. Admitted he tried cocaine* (*as corrected by Wiley)
https://twitter.com/WileyUpdates/status/692285128777801730
https://twitter.com/WileyUpdates/status/692288669680562176
Rumours have always circulated with regards to his relationship with drugs, and he was active in addressing it. Whilst talking about his stint as a dealer he said “my first drug was cocaine… that’s when I was partying”. However, the first drug he TRIED and says he is addicted to is weed – which he smokes daily.
7. Revealed that he felt he lost the famous Lord of the Mics clash with Kano
When asked about the clash, Wiley was quick to answer by saying “Kano won that”. He goes on to say that he’s always said that and that he’s not a liar when it comes to music, up-keeping the theme of honesty in the interview.
8. “Wearing My Rolex” made him upwards of £500,000
“It made me a lot of money, I didn’t know you could make that type of money”, he told the trio when quizzed about his self proclaimed career highlight. “I can’t accurately say, but one song, past half a million” – serious inspiration for artists.
9. Explained in detail that the whole “Billy Jean” saga went on for six months prior to exposure
It wouldn’t have been Chams in an NFTR interview without asking about girls, and it was a subject that was touched on. Wiley’s famous Twitter rant sent the timeline into a frenzy with his response to a girl’s claim of being his potential baby mother. When interrogated on the subject, he reveals that an intense back and forth occurred for six months before he decided to air it on social media. He also mentioned he thought his ageing self meant that he was “firing blanks”…
10. Talks about being stabbed over 20 times
When talking about being stabbed two days before his “Wearing My Rolex” shoot, Wiley was asked how many times he had been stabbed, by Posty. He responded by saying “a lot, about 20 times… I could be dead”. He also felt that following the stabbing prior to the shoot, it slowly made him become the “no show” guy that people label him to be.
11. Both work and talks on a Wiley biopic and book have begun
The discussion turned to asking what Wiley is up to now, leading to the revelation that he’s working on a book and biopic deal. Wiley talked about what he was doing now was his end goal and that the NWA biopic helped encourage him to get it off the ground.
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On the whole, it was an interview that every Grime fan had been crying out for. It’s also someone that the NFTR trio will undoubtedly have to bring back for a part two as there are endless topics to discuss with the Godfather. Honesty was the constant theme throughout, and it was nice to see Wiley be so open about all the subjects discussed. Here’s to hoping for a part two with more revelations and answers.
Words: Alex Griffin & Jaik Fenton