Stormzy to perform in Birmingham
MOBO-winner Stormzy has taken the charts by, er, storm. Propelling grime into the main stream, he scored a Christmas hit after campaigning for his gold-selling Shut Up to outgun the X Factor – reaching number eight.
His debut album, Gangs Signs & Prayer, was the first grime album to reach number one. The child of grime was influenced by Wiley and Skepta and also admires such R&B singers as Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill.
"With Frank, it's his song writing. If you pay very close attention to his music Frank is in a whole different level in terms of his song writing. With that I would also say Lauryn Hill, because her songs and her writing were just incredible. Yeah, I really pay attention to the song writing of artists like that."
And he's on the road following the success of his debut album, with a sell out show at Birmingham's O2 Academy on Tuesday.
He's worked hard to create his own niche after watching other performers and learning to go his own way.
"It was a natural approach honestly. I started off clashing at youth clubs with everyone grabbing the mic and then I did the switch to rap, I was a terrible rapper at first. My friend who I learned with, he could rap quite fast that I couldn't match, so I had that slow tempo. I eventually learned how to rap though and then I got serious with the music, then not serious, then serious again, and when I got serious for the last time I thought, 'Let me make this as natural as possible'.
"So I make the music I like. When you check my YouTube you see I got the covers for the girls and a rap freestyle, then a #wickedskengman freestyle, that shows the diversity of it, and the versatility and that's simply because it all comes naturally. If I like it, I'm gonna do it."
