Audio: Wiley – ‘I Will Not Lose’ (ft Dizzee Rascal)

Fresh from the vault comes a surprise early [unreleased] collab between Wiley and Dizzee, delivering solid bars across a dubplate of Ludacris’ Roll Out.

Premiered by the good folks over at SBTV, I Will Not Lose has a massively-compelling story, put together by DJ Semtex from the early ‘pre-days’ of grime.

Speaking of his musical past, and the time he first met Dizzee, Semtex says:

“I never wanted to do A&R but, when I met Dizzee, that was the turning point. I could hear five albums, minimum. This was pre-XL Records, everything. I met him originally when I reached out to Wiley to do a Ludacris remix. Back then no one even knew what grime was, like maybe 2001-2, it was still developing, it wasn’t the full blown genre that it is today. All I knew was that it was sick and Wiley was the guy — Wiley and Pay As You Go [Cartel] were all over London on street posters — and the label were just like ‘How do we blow this track up?!’ So I was like ‘Cool, let’s get Wiley to do a remix of ‘Roll Out’ by Ludacris.’ So I hooked up with him in Bethnal Green, drove to the studio, he did the remix the day after and… it was funny, we ran with the demo mix [in the end] because it was better than the finished mix [laughs]. I think they smoked too much weed during the mix down and the drums were too low or something.

While I was coming down to the studio to check out the remix, I saw this kid in a chair in the corner of the studio with his hood up looking maaaad ‘aggy. I was just like ‘Okay, I don’t want to be anywhere near that kid; he looks like he has issues.’ But anyway, when I was there I was like ‘Yo – can I get a dubplate?’ — Wiley’s ‘I Will Not Lose’ was my favourite joint at the time. So he hit me back later like, ‘I’ve done this dubplate for you, but I’ve put this kid on it as well.’ It was the kid from the studio. I was thinking, ‘Oh, here we go. He’s trying to bring one of his bredrins through’ [laughs]. But I heard it and remember thinking ‘Wow, this kid is sick.’ His bars were crazy, mad complex rhyme patterns. It was a 16/17 year-old Dizzee Rascal.”

The whole dub is mad, as is Semtex’s backstory, which we massively-urge you to read (you can nab it here). In the meantime, stream I Will Not Lose, below: