When you get the chance to sit down for an interview with Wiley the God Father of Grime you don’t just ask him the stuff that every other Music platform in the country wants to ask him you get into everything, from his thoughts on UK Fashion now, Who should be a Grime Icon and his favourite Sneaker, this is the second part of our exclusive interview with Wiley, if you haven’t read part one yet, you do so here.
Kanye West is a huge music and fashion icon right now, Drake is the worldwide popular music icon right now and Skepta is now a worldwide Grime icon, who in your opinion from the Grime scene should be worldwide icons, but have been slept on?
Ghetts, Kano Devlin, you know what it is their abilities, obviously we can make headway we can make status big we can do different things but I always look at the abilities of a person not what they’ve sold or what people think.
like I’ll tell you the truth yeah, the other day I told someone that Ghetts was the hardest out, I’ve been to show’s where he’s fucking up the rave I mean he was killing it but then if I said to another fan like who do you like they might not say Ghetts they’re gonna say Skepta maybe cos they like Skepta, but not to compare Ghetts and Skepta, you go to watch Ghetts he’s fucking it up and if you watch Skepta he’s fucking it up like they are both fucking it up but one isn’t as well known as the other so I still accept Ghetts for how much he’s fucking it up though but Skepta is the one that everyone likes but I still know if Skepta and Ghetts went back to back it might be trouble for Skepta not in a bad way but yeah it might be awkward
If you could of done three things differently at this years Redbull Culture clash what would they of been?
I would of listen I didn’t do anything I just came there to be fair but what I should of done is I should of told them not to bring all those people out in the first round. I would of changed the Dub, I wouldn’t of dropped the Adelle Dub and I would of used more memes, cos I did know someone was gonna use memes but what I didn’t know was that someone was gonna make a video and start going down the rassclaart cartoon route.
We heard on the NFTR interview that you have very strong opinions on what a classic album is choosing to highlight Boy in Da Corner as a classic then we saw that you changed your mind via Tweets Explain the change of mind?
Nah Home Sweet Home is a classic I tweeted them Home Sweet Home is but you know what is when you ask me about Boy in Da Corner and Home Sweet Home Im gonna pick Boy in da Corner only cos that’s my guy, that’s what I experienced whoever was in Newham they are gonna say him so it is a classic and also you know what it is Kano is sick and I know people think that I dissed him I didn’t diss him what I’m saying is in MC’ing after you’ve been MC’ing for fucking ages you start to learn things and you realise stuff and one thing I’ve realised is sometimes an MC can paint the best picture they are really really good at painting the picture but its not always their picture and sometimes an MC’s bars are sicker than they are as a person and what I mean by that is if you listen to a lyric from me and you know about me you would fit it together, some peoples bars are too perfect.
What do you think about the changes in fashion over the years in UK in general, for example boot cuts to skinny jeans and hiphop centric to retro sportswear?
Bruv listen A$ap Rocky made couple Mandem dress different am I lying? But in London though? How the hell did A$ap rocky do that? It’s the designer they just look at what’s gonna go, they make it ,they ask people to wear it and its done.
I didn’t think I would see the day with all black boys with skinny jeans and ripped jeans and long T-shirts, I didn’t think I’d see that day and the last time I was in America it definitely was not that day. It weren’t bruv it was baggy as hell, everyone had 4XL, 5XL, 6XL stuff on, its mad, its mad to even see Americans like Asap Rocky but as you said he didn’t go the other way he’s from Harlem bruv, he didn’t go the other way like people from Harlem seeing him walk down the road they would have been asking is he funny? It’s nuts but he done it, he swagged it out.
Merchandise is the most slept on revenue stream in the UK Grime Scene even with Lethal Bizzle, Tinchy Stryder and JME leading the way a lot of artists have missed out on the opportunity to cash in on their careers to the maximum why is it that?
I think because it was too early I think it was pioneering like different people when you’re pioneering and you’re trying to find your way you will all go on different things someone might be concentrating on being the best MC and not focus on the merch, some might be producing like someone might not know that they are big enough to have merch, they might not know, what you’ve gotta do is just do the merch whether you’re big or not cos when it comes to light it comes to light you know what I mean? Americans are on it I’ve noticed.
Sneakers have always been a big part of Grime since the Air Max 90’s day, what is your favourite sneaker of all time?
Ooh I like Air Max, I like 97’s they are one of my favourites I did like the original Air max’s but they are old and gone I need to make sure that they are called 97’s yeah because there was some gunman colours of them before, I went to America and saw some sick ones.
You have 2 sneaker stores now called Eskisports what motivated you to start this business?
Because I knew that I needed to do something more than Music, people do Music get the money and obviously they spend it, what you gotta do is though, you’ve got to do something so that you don’t go to zero you need to make sure that you are buying and selling ,what I mean by that is obviously, I buy studio time, I record and I sell my music. I get stock, put it in the shop put the profit on and I make my money, like you’ve got to be selling something and that’s exactly why I done that because in my head I said “right Music doesn’t last forever”.
Is Eski sports a consignment store or are you working with sneaker brands to get the latest releases exclusively?
Yeah that’s what I’ve started, so when I first started I got some stock from one of my bredrins who works in that area,put some money on top and then I started to learn about all the other stuff involved with running a shop. I spoke to Puma I spoke to Nike and adidas etc and from September onwards we’ll be dealing with that.
Not gonna lie, when I first went there they was probably like “Wiley’s not serious” you know what I mean, they didn’t pay attention as much as they should of and then when they saw that actually “no he’s serious, look he’s doing It”, that’s when things started happening, cos to get the accounts you have to be spending a certain amount of money a year with them and with Nike its hard to get Nike cos they give you the stock to sell and blah bla so sometimes you have to mess with them and the other world of trainers, not the black market of trainers cos they’re not fake but there’s another trainer world where I see them going ham, like I saw people putting trainers on ebay for silly money and all that type of ting you know like that.
Wiley’s Album ‘The Godfather’ is on it’s way and we are supper excited, we will bring you the pre-order link as soon as it’s available, for now follow Wiley on Twitter at @WileyUpdates
Words: @Mr_TrappedMag
