Wiley opens up about Dizzee Rascal feud in new autobiography

Grime MC Wiley has said he wants “closure” with Dizzee Rascal as he opened up about their long-running feud.

The duo – both part of grime collective Roll Deep in the early 2000s – fell out after Dizzee, real name Dylan Mills, was stabbed in Ayia Napa in 2003, with full details of the incident never fully disclosed.

In his new autobiography, Wiley, real name Richard Cowie, speaks about the attack and pens a note to his former friend, who was 19 at the time, saying they need to speak.

“Maybe I was naive, but I didn’t think it was going to be anything serious,” he writes. “As we walk up to them this man goes to slap Dizzee. Dizzee punches him back. Then we get rushed. By two crews. I may be exaggerating but it felt like fifty, sixty people.”

“Dizzee stayed, which was probably the right thing to do. Anyway, so we get these boys, and get our own back a little, but now it’s escalating,” the 39-year-old writes.

“This is all men, young men, all egos, pride, beefing. Something happened, something else happened and suddenly it spiralled out of control. So we lost Dizzee after this. It turned out that he was on his moped, and ran into another group of boys from one of the crews.”

The musician continues: “I wish he wasn’t on his own when it happened. I wish he’d stayed with me. That’s all I wish, because if he stuck with us, then it might have been a different story.

“So after me and this other boy did what we did, they came back and found him. But whatever man, it’s happened. It’s happened, it’s done and it needs closure.

“Every time I think of that whole situation, I cannot believe what went on. I can’t believe that it’s still the reason we don’t talk today.”

He writes: “We’re the yin and yang of the game. It doesn’t need friendship, it just needs closure. You’ve achieved a lot without me. No one can take that away from you. But the reason you’re Dizzee is because I’m Wiley. We came out of the ashes together and made a future.

“I understand it if you’re sitting there thinking that I wanted you to get stabbed. But then you need to remember that we all made mistakes there. If you’ve got a problem you should ring me and address it. If you haven’t got a problem, it’s fine. We need to speak.

“It’s been fifteen years now. We’re older now. We’ve both nearly died, Jesus Christ.”

Earlier this year the two were embroiled in a Twitter row as the feud appeared to reignite.

The autobiography, Eskiboy, is made up of 96 short chapters and covers everything from Wiley’s own close shave with death to his move away from dealing drugs into music and a revelation that he almost signed up to Celebrity Big Brother.

It features a number of the star’s fellow rappers, friends and family, including Wretch 32, his father and manager John Woolf.

:: Eskiboy by Wiley is out in hardback on November 2 from William Heinemann.