28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Grime star Wiley dons Celtic tracksuit for stage comeback after antisemitism row
The rapper was stripped of his MBE last year after a series of antisemitic tweets.
Controversial rapper Wiley has returned to stage for the first time since being stripped of his MBE - wearing a full Celtic tracksuit.
The grime star lost his honour last year after a racism storm following some antisemitic tweets.
But he made his comeback wearing the Hoops gear at the Sidewinder Summer Festival in Milton Keynes on Sunday.
Footage of his return was posted by Scots actor Rudi Neequaye, who also rapped on stage with him.
Fellow rap star Scorcher introduced Wiley, 46, saying: 'I didn't even know you were here.'
Earlier Wiley - decked out in Hoops colours - also posed for pictures with Neequaye, 36, and his son Rudi jnr.
The rapper also supports English Premier League side Spurs and recorded a rap version of Chas and Dave's club anthem Glory, Glory, Tottenham Hotspur after they won the Europa League last week.
In 2020, his accounts were flooded with antisemitic comments, including a statement that likened Jews to the Ku Klux Klan.
It saw him dropped by his manager John Woolf who himself is Jewish.
He was eventually suspended by Twitter, now X, but the delay saw a 48-hour boycott by celebrities including Sir Alan Sugar, football legend Gary Lineker and pop star Sophie Ellie-Bexter.
Wiley later apologised for "generalising", stating: "My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people.
"I want to apologise for generalising, and I want to apologise for comments that were looked at as antisemitic."
The 46-year old rapper, real name Richard Kylea Cowie Jr., is often labelled the Godfather of Grime.
He is of Trinidadian and Antiguan descent. Wiley's father, Richard Cowie Senior was a reggae artist during Wiley's youth in the 1980s and introduced Wiley to early hip-hop such as The Sugarhill Gang.
As a teenager in the early-1990s, he sold crack cocaine and heroin before giving up dealing drugs to become a musician and music producer.
He has since released 15 albums including 2017's Godfather which made the Top 10.
Wiley was awarded the MBE for services to music in 2017.
But last year he was stripped of the title for "bringing the honours system into disrepute".
