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. In the early 2000s, he independently released a series of highly influential eskibeat instrumentals on white label vinyl, most notably the first in the series "Eskimo" and rose to fame as a Grime MC both for his solo work and for material released with his crew Roll Deep.
Wiley‘s eleventh album, titled Godfather entered at number 9 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Wiley's highest-charting album of his career. Wiley is considered a pioneer in the British underground music scene with a prolific work rate and a versatile music artist with many crossover hits.