British rapper Wiley stripped of royal honors over antisemitism

26 February 2024, 11:57 pm 9 Edit

Grime music artist Wiley during an event in London, October 18, 2017. (Ian West/PA via AP)

British rapper Wiley has been stripped of a royal honor over his longstanding antisemitism, the BBC reports.

Wiley, known as the “Godfather of Grime,” was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music in 2017.

However, this has since been revoked, following frequent antisemitic outbursts on social media in recent years, the report says.

The singer, whose real name is Richard Kylea Cowie, was repeatedly banned from social media for sending out a string of antisemitic posts including claims of connections between the Jewish community and the Ku Klux Klan, as well as repeated tropes about Jews and money.

The BBC quotes a cabinet statement saying that Wiley was formally stripped of the title for “bringing the honors system into disrepute.”