Wiley has offered his version of why he and fellow grime legend Dizzee Rascal haven't spoken in years, through an interview with Time Out.
On a trip to Ayia Napa in 2003, Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, both members of the grime collective Roll Deep at the time, got into an argument with a rival crew. The following day, Wiley refused to let it go.
I decided to carry it on – I didn’t pull out a knife. I was just fighting. Me and another guy went looking for them again. Dizzee just rode off, because in his head, he’s probably thinking: “What the fuck are you doing? That was last night! It’s just gonna carry on!” Well, after we started it up again, those guys came looking for us. But the person they found was Dizzee.
Wiley has accepted his responsibility for his part in the stabbing: "Now I’m older, I can see: Dizzee in his head will always be thinking: 'I know we got into a beef. I know something started. But you lot carried it on the next day. If you had left it I wouldn’t have got stabbed.' That is the reason me and Dizzee haven’t spoken all these years." However, he believes that if the stabbing hadn't happened, grime may never have become as popular in the UK as it eventually did.
I hate saying this, but I always say it: if he hadn’t got stabbed, grime wouldn’t have been in The Sun. He got stabbed and then bro, the WHOLE of England was talking about it. It took that to get our sound into the nation’s ears. That’s the sad side of things.
Wiley will open for Dizzee Rascal in Bedford Park on August 5... would a reunion and performance of "2 Far" be too much to ask for?
The FADER has reached out to both Dizzee and Wiley's camps for comment.
