If anything, Wiley gives great interviews.
Last week, The Godfather of Grime sounded off on radio on his opinions of both Ed Sheeran and Drake, and their actual contributions to the British Grime scene.
In an interview on 1Xtra in the UK, Wiley took aim at Ed Sheeran for his ‘culture vulture’ ways, accusing the singer of not reciprocating on the collaboration front and using his involvement with Grime and its artists for clout.
“They called you, Ed, the most influential urban artist of the decade,” Wiley told 1Xtra’s Adot. “When I read the thing, I thought it should have said, ‘The artist who sold the most…’, because how can he be the most influential urban artist?”
The two artists collaborated on Sheeran’s No.5 project on the track, ‘You’.
Ed Sheeran ft. Wiley – ‘You’
Now, Sheeran has responded to Wiley’s claims, taking a lengthy response to social media.
“Dear Wiley,” the post begins.
“Just wanna clear a few things up. I never said no to doing a song for you after we made ‘You’ for no.5. You wanted to release ‘If I Could’ the same week as my debut single on a major label and I merely asked if you could move to a week before or a week after, which you did, the song came out, and I’m still very proud of it.”
Check out the full post below.
.@edsheeran responds to @WileyUpdates’s ‘culture vulture’ comments 📝 pic.twitter.com/R162w6CdG4
— BBC Radio 1Xtra (@1Xtra) September 16, 2019
It’s not the first time Wiley has gone at Drake. The rapper first called the Canadian artist a culture vulture after the latter popped up on stage for a variety of UK artists, and brought a slew of them out on his own tour for guest appearances too (J Hus, Afro B in particular).
In Wiley’s opinion, Drake is less about being genuinely involved in the progression of the scene, but looking good in surrounding himself with artists like Krept & Konan and Dave.
“Mandem who are not from the hood, they come to places and try and get involved with man from the hood.” he said. “The truth is, he’s just a pagan and he knows it. If I say it, he can’t say nothing to me and that’s the truth.”
“He’s not embracing the scene, he’s doing it for himself.”
