Roll Deep

Few British crews have shaped grime as directly as Roll Deep. Wiley founded the group in 2001, just as the garage collective Pay As U Go Cartel was breaking up, and the name, suggested by Flowdan, nods to the bashment phrase 'rolling deep'. Their album's accessible production drew mixed reactions within the scene, yet DJ Target later noted that many of its leading artists have since crossed over.

The crew built their profile through independent mixtapes and vinyl singles before signing to a major label. Their debut album, In at the Deep End, arrived in June 2005 with four singles, including Heat Up and Shake a Leg, and won them an Urban Music Award that year. In October 2006 they contributed Searching, inspired by Anish Kapoor's sculpture Ishi's Light, to Tate Modern's Tate Tracks project. Albums Rules and Regulations (2007) and Return of the Big Money Sound (2008) followed, before Good Times and Green Light gave them two UK No. 1s in 2010. A hiatus began in 2013, but in 2026 they signed to FABRICLIVE for the comeback single B.U.N and the mixtape Best in the Game.