Roll Deep
Roll Deep (formerly Roll Deep Entourage) are a British grime crew. They were founded in 2001 by Wiley shortly before the disbandment of UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel.[1]
Roll Deep
Bow, London, England
2001–2013 (on hiatus)
- Roll Deep Records (2002–present)
- Virgin Records (2005–2010)
- Relentless Records (2005–2010)
- Cooking Vinyl Records (2012)
- Relentless Records (2013)
- Dizzee Rascal
- Tinchy Stryder
- Biggie Pitbull
- Dom P
- Wonder
- Jamakabi
- Bubbles
- DJ Bionics
- Jme
- Jet Le
- Trim
- Roachee
- DJ Maximum
- Syer Barz
- Skepta
- Jammer
- Danny Weed
- Killa P
- Little Dee
The group have had two UK No. 1 singles, "Good Times" and "Green Light", won an Urban Music Award, and between 2001 and 2012 they released five studio albums before entering an indefinite hiatus in 2013.
Current member Wiley and former members Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder have gone on to be successful solo artists in the UK, with songs that have topped charts.
Flowdan won a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording in 2024 for the song 'Rumble' (with Fred Again and Skrillex).
History[edit]
Inspired by the success of So Solid Crew, Wiley founded the UK garage crew Ladies Hit Squad alongside DJ Target and Maxwell D around the end of the 20th century (2000). At the same time, Plague, Slimzee, Geeneus, Major Ace and God's Gift were enjoying relative success with another garage crew called Pay As U Go Kartel. Geeneus, who also founded Rinse FM, invited both Wiley and Flowdan to join Pay As U Go. The group released their debut single, "Know We", in 2000.[2]
Two years later, Wiley, Flowdan, Jamakabi and Breeze recorded a song entitled "Terrible", which record stores perceived to be a follow-up to "Know We". It was at this point that DJ Marc-U-S joined the group, having been consulted by his childhood friends, Flowdan and Jamakabi, to remix the struggling "Terrible" track after major success witht he launch of his own radio station Rumour FM. Wiley decided he didn't want to release "Terrible" under the Pay As U Go name, so Flowdan suggested the name Roll Deep: a homage to the phrase 'rolling deep', popular within bashment songs. Flowdan cites the introduction of Dizzee Rascal to Roll Deep and his subsequent popularity as the reason why Pay As U Go eventually disbanded and Roll Deep rose to prominence.[2]
The crew distributed a number of mixtapes and vinyl singles independently before being signed to a major label and releasing their debut album In at the Deep End in June 2005. Four singles were released from the album: "Heat Up", "The Avenue", "When I'm 'Ere" and "Shake a Leg". They won an Urban Music Award.[3]
In October 2006, Roll Deep participated in a project of Tate Modern museum where various groups and songwriters were invited to choose a work that inspired them from the gallery's collection of modern art and then write a track about it.[4] Roll Deep's submission, Searching, was inspired by the Anish Kapoor sculpture Ishi's Light, and can be heard on headphones in front of the work or on the Tate Tracks website.[5]
Their second album Rules and Regulations was released in 2007, followed by the release of Return of the Big Money Sound in 2008.
The group got their first UK No. 1 single with the song "Good Times" in May 2010 and the group's second UK No. 1 single was "Green Light" in August 2010. Their next single was "Take Control", featuring R&B singer Alesha Dixon, which charted at No. 29 on 7 November 2010.[6] Roll Deep released their next single "Picture Perfect" (produced by Agent X) peaking at No. 19 in the indie charts.
Roll Deep have appeared on BBC 1Xtra on numerous occasions. Members that appeared on the show include Wiley, Scratchy, Flowdan, Breeze, Brazen, Riko and Manga. In later years the group's work began to take a more mainstream oriented approach which led to members such as Riko and Flowdan becoming less active within the crew. In March 2014 Flowdan confirmed in an interview on Rinse FM the group's current hiatus and discussed the lack of drive from other members to work on music collectively.[7] However many members of the crew are still active as solo artists and none have ruled out a return to writing music together in the future.
In August 2018, DJ Karnage, Breeze, Manga, Brazen, Scratchy, Riko Dan and Flowdan all appeared at Riko Dan's Hard Food EP launch party, collectively billed as Roll Deep on the lineup.[8] Later the same month, Manga told Grime.com: "We've got tunes, but it just takes long to organise. We've got new songs — or we had new songs — I don't know where they are, I think Wiley's got them somewhere. But we've started about three [new] Roll Deep albums between us, but... oh, it's just long to get everyone together, man. Wiley lives in Cyprus, Target's on radio everyday, Flowdan's doing shows everyday, J2K's making restaurants and creps and all these type of ting there."[9] In August 2019, Scratchy and Flowdan appeared as Roll Deep on "Don't Lie", featuring Jammer and taken from his Lord of the Mics VIII compilation album.
Politics[edit]
Roll Deep have been consistent supporters of Love Music Hate Racism and have played at many of the organisation's more high-profile events including the memorial for murdered teenager Anthony Walker, and released a single and video of "Racist People", from the Rules and Regulations LP.[12]