Wiley first tasted success as a member of UK garage crew Pay As U Go, with whom he had a top 40 hit, "Champagne Dance" in 2001.

[17] Wiley has been stabbed more than twenty times in his lifetime[18] and has been in numerous other life-threatening situations including being chased by a man with a samurai sword and being shot at with shotguns.

[22] Wiley also received wide recognition in 2000 for his UK garage record "Nicole's Groove" which he produced under the stage name Phaze One.

[23][24] After Pay As U Go disbanded, Wiley went on to form the Roll Deep entourage, which included Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder.

[30] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian noted the "comically polarised" fanbase Wiley had accrued; "At one extreme, its sonic experimentation has attracted the kind of people who run music blogs... [where] lengthy essays are posted on issues as the differentiation between Humean and Kantian views of motivation in the lyrics of Bonnie Prince Billy.

During this period, Wiley occasionally referred to his music as "eski", short for "eskibeat" – the name he initially gave to grime.

He explained his choice of name for his music and the continuing theme in his song and album titles such as Treddin' on Thin Ice, partly because he likes the wintertime, but mainly meaning cold in spirit.

The instrumentation, such as the slower, house style beat and lack of sub bass,[36] caused some unrest within the grime scene, as Wiley had previously vowed that he would never change his sound to break into the mainstream.

[37] This was followed by his fifth studio album, See Clear Now, in October 2008, which included the mainstream hits "Wearing My Rolex", "Cash in My Pocket" and "Summertime".

[citation needed] Despite its success, Wiley has disowned the album as he was "very angry" with the label Asylum, about the production and also unhappy about his management at the time.

[citation needed] Shortly after, Wiley confirmed in an interview on the Official Chart Show that he will be releasing a further two singles and a new album in the coming months.

[45] His next single, announced in late August, titled "Can You Hear Me" featuring Skepta, JME and Ms D,[46] was released in October 2012.

[48] Wiley then announced on Twitter that the third single off his next album, Hands in the Air, will feature Chip, Ice-Kid and Tulisa for release on 13 September 2012.

[51] Also on 11 October, Wiley announced he no longer intended to perform at universities and student unions, citing professional concerns and stating that he "had better things to do".

[52] Despite this, Wiley played a club night at SUSU, the University of Southampton Students' Union, on 25 January 2013 as part of the Ministry of Sound Raveout tour.

"[55] On 11 October 2013, over 2,000 Wiley fans signed a petition, which was presented to Tower Hamlets' mayor Lutfur Rahman, requesting that a monument to the artist be erected in Bow.

Following the social media controversy in 2021, Wiley released his 15th studio album on all online music platforms in August 2022 Anti-Systemic.

[72] Artist features included JME, Kozzie, Scrufizzer, Faultsz, Realz, SBK, Capo Lee, FFSYTHO, Preshus, Duppy, K9 and more.

The artwork was provocative, as was the album title; a direct play on the recent social media controversy and accusations of antisemitism.

It was designed by a previously unknown collaborator, Dr Khuram Ahmed MD MRCGP, who was also responsible the manufacture, promotion and distribution of the album.

This group consists of R&B singers and sisters Shola and Sadie Ama; grime artists Wiley, J2K & Brazen all from Roll Deep; Mz.

In 2004, Eskibeat Recordings was formed by Wiley to bring young grime artists into the spotlight as well as release his own music under the label.

He has a joint venture distribution deal with Warner Music Group under two brand names, one being Wiley, and the other being Chasing the Arts records, as of 2017.

[99] The Campaign Against Antisemitism issued a statement saying: "We consider that Wiley has committed the offence of incitement to racial hatred, which can carry a substantial prison sentence."

The CAA called for both his accounts to be removed and wrote to the Honours Forfeiture Committee at the Cabinet Office to ask for his MBE to be revoked.

[102] On 27 July, a 48-hour boycott of Twitter by some users was started under the hashtag "#NoSafeSpaceForJewHate", protesting the social media site's slow response to the tweets.

[108] The following month, the Metropolitan Police dropped their investigation when it was discovered that Wiley was in Rotterdam in the Netherlands when he sent the messages, and thus not under the jurisdiction of English law.

During pre-trial hearings, Wiley was granted an adjournment to allow him more time to apply for legal aid due to his presently impoverished state, and speak to his lawyers.

Wiley was scheduled to appear at Thames Magistrates' Court on 27 September, charged with assault by beating and burglary with intent to cause criminal damage.

[114] On 11 May 2022, the Metropolitan Police issued an official wanted notice on their Twitter page announcing that it had been six months since Wiley was due in court.