Rapper ‘Wiley’ MBE, real name Richard Cowie, is considered by many to be the ‘godfather of grime music’. However, recently he has been banned from twitter, dropped by his management and is being investigated by police after going on a long, antisemitic tirade on Twitter. There are also calls for his MBE, appointed for services to music, to be forfeited.
In one tweet he said ‘I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people’, buying into a common misconception both that Jews are somehow responsible for not stopping anti-black racism, and that Jews can’t be black. In reality, many Jews are POC. He also compared the Jewish community to the Ku Klux Klan multiple times.
He shared antisemitic conspiracy theories, making multiple references to the idea that Jewish people hold significant power, saying that Jews “are the law”. He also insulted Jewish people on his instagram and Twitter accounts, which combined have almost a million followers, among many other things calling them “too touchy” and saying that Israel “is not yours”.
His manager, a “proud Jewish man” was “deeply shocked and saddened”, subsequently cutting all ties with him and dropping him as an artist. It is believed his distribution label has also dropped him.
He is also being investigated by the police over allegations of inciting racial hatred towards the Jewish community. According to Lord Mann, an advisor to the government on antisemitism, some of the content shared by Wiley glorified a recent violent attack on a London rabbi.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism have requested his social media accounts to be shut down, to “prevent furthering outpouring of anti-Jewish venom”, and have contacted the government to request that he be forfeited of his MBE.
This marks another sad incident in the growing trend of artists being antisemitic on their social media accounts. Previous to Wiley, figures such as Madonna, DeSeanJackson, Nick Cannon and more have all been called out over making antisemitic and hateful remarks.
Noah Mitchell
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