Grime artist Wiley has shouted for his MBE to be taken away during a tense television interview.
The 41-year-old rapper, full name Richard Kylea Cowie Jr., has been at the centre of a racism storm after he published a series of anti-Semitic posts and videos on social media from July 24.
Wiley was subsequently dropped by his management, received a temporary ban on Twitter that today became permanent, had his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts permanently deleted by Facebook, and is now the subject of a police investigation.
Speaking in an interview shown on Sky News today, Wiley called for his MBE to be taken next.
Wiley said: "I'm not racist, you know. I'm a businessman."
When confronted with quotes of his anti-Semitic remarks, Wiley responded defiantly.
He said: "Do I see why that could be thought of as racism?
"If I read what anti-Semitism is and it says the Jewish community is powerful in business, that's racist? I think that's silly. I don't care what nobody says."
"I wanna apologise for generalising, number one, and I want to apologise for comments that were looked at as anti-Semitic."
Sky News reports that he went on to repeat some of the inflammatory comments he made on social media and so they did not broadcast this.
However, in remarks seen, Wiley said: "The music industry - the actual people I'm talking about - they're the ones that actually get to benefit from it. That's what this is all about.
"It's systemic racism from their side," he said, before shouting: "What do you think?"
Wiley then said: "The system and that man and the community of Jewish lawyers and thingy have made me feel that way. Yes they have. They've made me feel that way.
"That's not anti-Semitic, they've made me feel angry and upset because they're showing me the system of systemic racism and privilege that they're allowed to use on us."
The 'Godfather of Grime' was then asked about the possibility that his words could incite hatred and violence towards the Jewish community.
"What do I want to say to someone who is part of that community? What do they want to say to mine?"
He then added: "Fans are fickle, don't wind me up. I'm 41-years-old, it's not like I got all big of fans. Allow it. I'm not Dave."
Wiley then noted: "I'm 41, I'm at the end of my career rather than at the beginning."
When confronted with calls for him to be stripped of his MBE which he was awarded in 2018 by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Wiley hit back.
He shouted: "Take it back! I've never had that in my possession except for a picture outside Buckingham Palace."
"Everything that gets done is for [former manager] John Woolf, I ain't got an award or a plaque or nothing.
"I ain't got nothing in my yard to show. John Woolf's got the MBE. I've never had the MBE, it's framed in his house."
"Now who's the MBE for, really? Don't think I was sitting there like 'Where's my MBE? Where's my OBE? I need my knighthood. Where's my Richard Branson? No."
A spokesperson for Wiley's former manager John Woolf has said that Wiley's MBE has been framed and is waiting for him to collect.
