East London-born grime rapper Wiley, aka Richard Kylea Cowie Jr, MBE, has said that, while he has settled his recent scores with Ed Sheeran, he confesses that he has remaining issues with “England’s golden boy.” Quoted today (June 5th) in a Guardian interview, Wiley has reflected on his previously held contempt against Sheeran for what he believed to be the co-opting of grime music, when the fellow MBE recipient collaborated with rapper Stormzy on his 2019 #1 single ‘Take Me Back to London‘.

He says of the track’s release at the time that, when he heard Sheeran “tried to put out that grime remix, I was like: nah, man, this is not sitting well with me,” asserting his discomfort with the artistic choice stemming from Sheeran’s alleged exploitation of grime’s entrenched fan base without actively supporting any of its attributed artists. As Wiley says, his vexation derives from the stricture that “we’re not allowed to use you [Sheeran]: you haven’t given a shit about us, since the time you started, until Stormzy came along. I don’t like the way that grime gets used.”

The latter comment relates to the fact that Sheeran’s first record deal was secured as a result of his 2011 collaboration with Wiley, on his eight-track EP No 5 Collaborations Project. All eight tracks featured grime MCs. Elsewhere, the two grime artists had variously hurled shade at one another since the beginning of the new decade, with a slew of “diss tracks” between Wiley and Stormzy, one of which being the latter’s aptly titled ‘Disappointed‘. The single – which has tallied a YouTube hit-rate in excess of 7,250,000 views since it dropped in early January – saw the 26-year-old vilify his former mentor as a “crackhead” and a “c**t“.

Yet Wiley seems cooler on the issue now, having told The Guardian in the above cited interview,  “We’re over it now. I’ve spoken to Stormzy, I’ve got love for him.” Adding further clarity as to the intent behind his animosities, he says, “I just wish he hadn’t jumped in the way to defend Ed; that’s the only reason it happened. Ed Sheeran, England’s golden boy – he can use you, but you’re not allowed to use him.”