Next Generation Leaders
U.K.
Stormzy
Ambassador for grime
MIDMORNING IN A LEAFY SUBURB ON the outskirts of southwest London, and Stormzy is feeding Enzo. The 26-year-old rapper bought the Rottweiler a year ago, when soaring fame made personal security a necessity that a very big dog could address while also giving a new celebrity a chance at staying grounded.
Michael Omari, better known as Stormzy, is one of Britain’s most successful musicians and an ambassador for grime, a genre of music that emerged from the streets of multicultural London in the early 2000s and that is characterized by frenetic urgency. In 2017, an academic from the University of Westminster said it was on track to be “as disruptive and powerful as punk.” The genre’s most famous songs hurtle by at 140 beats per minute, as much electronic music as hip-hop.
Stormzy’s rise to fame has been almost as lightning-fast. In the past two years he has stacked up awards, enjoyed a No. 1 album, and in June became the first-ever British rapper to headline Glastonbury, one of the world’s largest music festivals. His duet with Ed Sheeran, “Take Me Back to London,” topped the British singles charts for five weeks this autumn.
When we meet in his home, Stormzy is initially a little distracted by Enzo, but he relaxes once the interview gets going. He seems in a philosophical mood. Of headlining Glastonbury, he says, “For the first time ever in my life, maybe in my career, I’ve achieved something and it’s given me perfect peace.”
Stormzy grew up in Norbury in southwest London. As a teenager, he absorbed grime culture by watching Channel U—the now defunct British satellite channel dedicated to U.K. hip-hop and grime—and rapping with his friends. He achieved exemplary exam grades in secondary school, something that has received significant media attention in the U.K. “They’re always a bit shocked that there’s academic brilliance in a young black South London brother with a street background,” he says. “If you saw a group of lads outside the chicken shop on push-bikes, I’m sure a lot of them are academically brilliant. Little did you know!”
Success didn’t come overnight. At 20, he got a job on an oil rig in the English port city of Southampton, and he remembers writing lyrics on Post-it notes while working. Within a year he made the decision to quit his job and pursue music full-time. It was 2014. “I don’t remember a crazy feeling of fear,” he says. “I remember feeling very sure that I’m a good MC. I didn’t ever feel stuck or at a dead end.”
It ended up being a good decision. His first EP, won him a MOBO Award, Britain’s highest-profile honor went straight to No. 1 on the U.K. album charts, the first grime album to do so in the genre’s 20-year history. Grime had arguably found its first mainstream star.
