Wiley dropped by manager over anti-Semitic tweets

Grime artist Wiley has been dropped by his management following anti-Semitic comments on his Twitter account.

His manager John Woolf said A-List Management has “cut all ties” after a long series of posts on Friday on accounts that belong to the rapper.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has asked police to investigate and called for his accounts to be closed.

Wiley is known as the “Godfather of Grime” and received an MBE for services to music in 2018.

Tweets appeared over a number of hours on an unverified Twitter account in his name with more than 490,000 followers.

Wiley shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and insulted Jewish people.

In one tweet he said “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people”, and also compared the Jewish community to the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr Woolf confirmed the account belongs to the London-born rapper, 41, whose real name is Richard Cowie.

The manager wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning: “Following Wiley’s antisemitic tweets today we at A—ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism.”

The announcement came a few hours after he tweeted that he was “talking to him privately” and wanted to “educate”.

He also wrote: “I am also saying as someone who has known him for 12 years I know he does not truly feel this way.”

‘Deeply shocked and saddened’

In a subsequent statement, Mr Woolf said: “To be very clear here. I do not support or condone what Wiley has said today online in any way shape or form.

“I am a proud Jewish man and I am deeply shocked and saddened but what he has chosen to say.

“I am speaking to key figures in my community in light of today’s tweets. This behaviour and hateful speech is not acceptable to me.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it had reported Wiley to the Met Police and asked Twitter and Facebook to close his accounts to “prevent further outpouring of anti-Jewish venom”.

“We consider that Wiley has committed the offence of incitement to racial hatred, which can carry a substantial prison sentence,” a statement read.

It added that it will contact the Cabinet Office to ask that Wiley’s MBE be revoked.

“Wiley has many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and we have seen today that many of them truly believe the unhinged hatred that he is spreading,” the statement continued.

“We are treating this as a very serious matter which must be met with the firmest of responses.”