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so have had a few people in touch with me re wiley and his horrible anti-semitic tweets. first of all: he is bang out of order and being a massive prick. second: i feel sorry for him. his start in life very different from mine (thread).
born to an addict mother. absent father. raised by his granny in the suburbs and exposed to some very nasty racism as a child. he had nothing and had to fight his way up to where he is now. to my eyes he used rage as an engine.
i can identify with that a little bit. i could not wait to get out of the north of ireland. i hated it. i wanted to dance with the beautiful people to the best music. not be stuck in the sticks.
wiley used anger as an energy to fight his way to relevance. i'd say it's pretty obvious that his general vibe is hard to dig. he falls out with literally everyone. all the time. this is not a positive life skill by any stretch. he has arrested as an angry little boy.
scorched earth and burning bridges his tried and tested way to get attention in a fractured childhood/adolesence and then, sadly, adulthood. he never learned how to move it on.
to be clear: his anti-semitism is disgusting. totally uncool. like any form of racism or discrimination. i cannot and am not trying to excuse it just point out that it's the logical conclusion for a certain behaviour pattern. he has been indulged due to his talent.
but similarly he has fallen out with everyone he has ever worked with. dizzee rascal and ed sheeran being the two headline artists that immediately spring to mind. in dizzees case wiley's behaviour almost got him killed in aya napa and lead directly to dylan signing with a major.
i did dizzee's first video. he said he didn't want to be a hero of the underground and end up dead in the gutter. he wanted to move things on. he spent four hours outside our first meeting before he came into sit down with us. his manager brandished a machete....
to let us know who was boss. on the shoot day he turned up with 30 mates to hang out. seb janiak directed. it still looks modern and super crisp today:
meanwhile wiley contented himself being the don of the underground. started @RinseFM and discovered many a talent including ginger ewok @edsheeran but, like everyone else, he fell out with him too. his need to burn bridges, to show he needed no one, overrides all.
now i felt i had the same problem albeit on a much more limited scale. i did something about it and - largely - have lived happily ever after. but not wiley. he has to keep pushing. keep picking. keep tearing it up and burning it down. what has happened is a disgrace.
also very embarrassing as i've worked with him and know him to be a super talented artist. literally next level. when he storms off set or doesn't turn up he's being petulant but when you quiz him on this you can see the actual pain in his eyes. he's a literal tortured artist.
none of this long stream of consciousness is meant to excuse him. he has immolated in public. a spiteful, nasty way to go down. he's also an adult but unable to take responsibility for his appalling behaviour. the only thing i'd add is that i'd like to give him a hug.
he has been a massive prick. he had a great manager who's patience, loyalty and diligence were unwavering for such a long time but wiley's demons overwhelm him. he can't help himself. he needs help but won't seek it.
sorry for this protracted unexpected outpouring. i just felt i had to add some context for my friend who have asked and also that i genuinely hope wiley gets some help. can let go of the past and learn a bit. he's bright. he's super talented. he's just completely shit the bed.
says a lot that wiley's best music video doesn't have him in it. he failed to turn up three times so we cast a 9 year old boy to play him. he was not happy with this. also had to fake the phone call intro by cutting up old interviews. 105,000,000 hits l8r
irony alert. this day last year we were shooting 'my one' for wiley. he didn't turn up for the shoot again so we had a pick up day in the barbican conservatory. the most beautiful location.
he used my snap on his insta. should be chasing him for publishing #GLWT
