At just 23-years-old, nothing could have prepared Stormzy for his meteoric rise. The London-born artist has continuously pushed the boundaries of grime throughout his self-built journey from his ‘WickedSkengMan’ freestyles to now being nominated for ‘British Breakthrough’ at this year’s BRIT Awards, not to mention his hugely inspirational talk at Oxford University in March last year after being personally invited by the Union.
First emerging on the scene in 2012, the lyricist made chart history in September 2015 when his freestyle “WickedSkengMan 4” charted at no. 18 in the UK Official Singles Chart, becoming the first-ever freestyle to chart in the UK Top 40! He then proceeded to break his own record in December “Shut Up” debuted at no. 8 in the UK charts following an epic social media campaign to in the run up to the end of year charts. “Shut Up” is now certified Gold in the UK, having sold over 560,000 copies to date; it’s also the most-watched UK freestyle on YouTube, ever, with over 46 million views!
Building momentum with impassioned support from his devoted fan base, to date, the MC has also won 3 MOBO Awards (Best Grime Act 2014 & 2015), 1 BET Award, The Times’ Breakthrough Award and the hugely prestigious Innovator Award at last year’s AIM Independent Music Awards. Moreover, Stormzy became the first unsigned rapper to appear on “Later... With Jools Holland” in 2015 and previously landed his own weekly radio show on Beats 1 - ‘#MERKY’.
Stayed tuned to watch Stormzy pave the way with his genre-defining record, “Gang Signs & Prayer”.
