I remember when I first heard the Sidewinder tape with Dizzee Rascal and Wiley on it. After months of debating whether More Fire Crew were better than So Solid Crew, a new fresh sound was taking over our discussions. That was the Eskimo sound, invented by Richard Kylea Cowie Jr, better known as Wiley (aka Eskiboy).
It was the sound that eventually became labelled as Grime. To many, Grime music was an offshoot of the Garage genre that had come before it. But many like myself fell like Grime was the more authentic genre, as it captured the feeling of the streets. The voices of the oppressed and the misunderstood were captured within the Grime category, whereas Garage music was more of a mainstream urban take.
Reading Eskiboy by Wiley allowed me to relieve those times in my life when youths didn’t know how to express themselves well enough, so they let their music do the talking for them. This book perfectly encapsulates an era that has long since been lost.
I’m sure everyone in their thirties and beyond feels like the world has changed so much since their glory days. It’s part of getting old. But the pages of Eskiboy capture a decade in British culture in which we were spoiled with good—and original—music.
Wiley is a legendary music producer from East London — Bow to be exact. He’s responsible for top-ten hit Wearing My Rolex and number one hit Heatwave. He’s also responsible for the success of numerous other Grime artists, like Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and more.
In Eskiboy, Wiley sheds light on different stages of his life, his progression in the music industry, and as his philosophy on a number of social issues. The book also has chapters dedicated to Wiley’s song lyrics.
What’s most unique about this autobiography is that the perspective changes. Aside from Wiley, we also get his sister Janaya, his manager John Woolf, Wretch 32 and his parents perspectives. A few more artists also shed light on their experiences with Wiley and how he helped them progress.
What I also respected about the book is that Wiley doesn’t shy away from writing about the harsh moments in his career that are the most publicly recognised. One being the incident in which Dizzee Rascal was stabbed in Ibiza by a rival crew, and the other being when Wiley got his face cut open in an unwarranted act of violence.
Some readers may feel that he didn’t delve as deep into these topics as they’d like, but at least we know where he stands on both issues. There’s also an entire chapter where Wiley addresses the fact that him and Dizzee Rascal still have yet to speak.
All in all, Eskiboy gave me a solid understanding of the mastermind that is Wiley. Love him or hate him, he’s achieved incredible things and he’s a staple of British culture, especially throughout 2000 – 2010. This book shows the human side of Wiley, the one that listeners might not see through all the negativity.
