Rising to Fame: Stormzy


Rising to Fame: Stormzy

Stormzy is a grime and hip hop artist from England and is the cousin of the female rapper, Nadia Rose. He grew up in Thornton Heath, Croydon and attended Harris Academy South Norwood. He left the academy with 6 A*’S, 3 A’S and 5 B’s at GCSE even though he claimed that he was naughty as a child. Before making the decision that music was going to be a full-time career for him, he did an apprenticeship at a Spa and worked in quality assurance at an oil refinery in Southampton. He started rapping at an early age which was at 11 and would have rap battles with other rappers at his local youth club and also said he was influenced by fellow grime artists such as Skepta and Wiley along with influences by R&B singers such as Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill.

In late 2014, he won a MOBO (Music of Black Origin) award for best grime act and it wasn’t until the following year (2015), that he rose to fame from his songs such as ‘Know Me From’ and ‘Shut up’. Since, rising to fame has won many awards including 2 MOBO awards, 2 Brit awards, 1 BET award and many more. When he took home male artist, album and grime act prizes at the MOBO’s last year (2017), Jeremy Corbyn the leader of labour praised Stormzy for showing the public what grime is really about. His debut album Gang signs & Prayer which was released last February was the first grime album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.

As well as being a well-known grime artist, Stormzy also has a political side to him which he showed at the Brit Awards this year, in his verse on the Soundtrack made in memory for those who died or are victims of Grenfell Tower last year (where a fire broke out killing many of the residents living there along with leaving many homeless) and supporting the labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn during the election in 2016 about Brexit.

At the Brit awards in February, after receiving his second award on the night, Stormzy performed his song ‘Blinded by his Grace’. During his performance, he caught the viewers and members of the audience’s attention by saying, “Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?”

By making this statement, it shows that he is deeply passionate about the welfare of the victims of Grenfell and would like to see their needs being met by the Prime Minster, Theresa May, since she promised them that they’ll be provided with new housing and other necessities they need, which they lost during the fire. However, those promises have not been met since she made that statement 9 months ago.  He even showed his support for the victims, by taking part in singing on the charity soundtrack which was made in honour of the victim “……that’s for every last soul up in Grenfell, even though I never met you,……troubled waters come running past, I’ma be right there just to build you a bridge.”

 

Comments

  1. This is a great post showing the life of Stormzy and how he achieved success. You clearly have researched this, and put effort into this post.

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