The Rapper Reveals Some of His Experiences of Fame’s Challenges And How Losing His Relationship Was A Self-Growth Experience
Black History Month Special
Stormzy Glastonbury 2019. Vest Designed By @Banksy @Stormzy
Louis Knows What He Does…
& Loves Doing It…
Even To Stormzy!
BBC Publicity Shot ~ @stormzyofficial_ ~ @LouisTheroux
Shoulder To Shoulder
Louis Theroux Interviews…’ Is A Six Part Series In Which The Intrepid Investigative Journalist Employs His Particular Brand of Questioning In Conversation With 6 Very Different Celebrities. Namely -Stormzy, Dame Judi Dench, Rita Ora, Katherine Ryan, Bear Grylls And The Singer & Musician At The Other End of The Musical Spectrum – Yungblud.
All Are Interesting. The First Three Outlined Here Are The Most Engaging. But By Far The Most Revealing, Reverberating And Topically Relevant Right Now, In A Post Pandemic, Social Justice Reform, And More Mental Health Aware Society, Is Stormzy.
Stormzy’s Bravery & Candour In His Down To Earth Dialogue With Louis Presents A Powerful And Poignant Opportunity To Grab The Black Male Mental Health Issue By The Horns And Work Towards Happier Days For Everyone. Men, Women, And Sadly – Even Children.
All Episodes Are Available On BBC iPlayer Where You Can Watch, Learn & Decide For Yourselves. October 2022
In June 2019 Banksy Banked On STORMZY’s Pending Pyramid Performance At Glastonbury & Gifted Him A Custom-Made Banksy Bullet Proof Union Jack Vest For The Iconic Concert Occasion
Stormzy @stormzyofficial_ Made History By Headlining Glastonbury Summer 2019. He Became The First Solo Black British Rapper To Do So. Alternative Rock Band Skunkanansie Headed Up By Frontwoman Skin, Had Done So In 2010, Virtually A Decade Previously. They Had A Totally Different Style)
October Is of Course UK Black History Month. Fitting Therefore Perhaps That Earlier This Month On October Tuesday 25 2022 The BBC Broadcast The First In A Series of One-To-One Intimate Interviews By Louis Theroux, The Veteran, Eccentric, Columbo-Esq Journalist (Who Seemingly, Deceptively, Presents Like He’s Hapless, Harmless, And Sometimes Clueless, But Who Knows Exactly What He’s Doing).
A Case In Point Is Series 1 Episode 1 of His New ‘Louis Theroux Interviews…’ Documentary Programme, Wherein He Interviews The South East London, Multi-Platinum, Rapping Phenomenon That Is Indeed Mr Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr.
Theroux’s Geeky Demeanour Is Disarming And During The Course of His Interview With The Rockstar Rapper, Grime Artist And Philanthropist, The Twenty-Nine Year Old Revealed To The Audience At Large In General And The Mental Health Savvy In Particular, That Being A Globally, And Indeed Locally, Successful, Young, Black, Male, Music Superstar, Come-Unintentional-Community Leader, Is Not Inherently Easy. Nor Was It Without A Mental Health Impact. And He Did So With Such Great Candour, Sensitivity And Authenticity That It Was Very Endearing,
The Overriding Impression That We Were Left With Is That Very Few People Currently Seem To Account For, Prepare For or Endeavour To Offer Mitigation For Those Potential Consequences.
And That Needs To Change!
It Is A Moving And Insightful. And, One, Society In General, And, Two, The Black Community In Particular, Ignores It At Its Peril. Because This Seems A Powerful Moment To Grab The Male Mental Health Issue By The Horns And Use It To Help Stormzy Himself, Others Within In His Generation, And Contemporaries, Elders And Allies In Need of Inspiration And Basic Well Being And Mental Health Protection.
Man To Man:
Humanitarian Singer-Songwriter Stormzy Is A Man Of Our Times. For Better Or For Worse. And In Sickness & In Health. Blessed With An Immeasurable Natural Talent, Sometimes He’s Struggled To Own It. But He’s Been Working On It…
The Cover of Times Magazine October 2019
The Interview Takes Place Across A Number of Locations And Time Frames Including At The Musician’s Home In South London, A Gathering In A Local Church In Camberwell, In Glasgow At The Ovo Hydro Arena, Scotland, And A West London Studio.
The Latter on The Final Night of His National Tour of UK And Northern Ireland. And They Cover A Wealth of Subjects. The Most Interesting of Which We Believe Is The Mental Health Impact His Success Had Had On Him. The Power of Coming Off Social Media. The Realization of Mistakes Within His Former Relationship And His Subsequent Need To Grow As A Man. And His Observations About His Experiences With His Father.
There Are Weighty Awards, Less Heavy Awards, BRIT Awards And MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards. And Even A Stormzy Edition of The Monopoly Board Game, Where If You Land On A Square That Declares (Hip-Hop Star And Beyonce’s Husband) – “Jay-Z Rates You” You Get To Move Up A Couple Places. As You Also Do If You Find Yourself On A Square Which Declares “You Have Won A MOBO”.
But Making It Onto The Cover of Time Magazine Is The Accolade He Says He Is Most Proud of. And Yet Paradoxically He Also Says That During The Period That Followed He Was “Not In The Best Mind-Set” And “It Was A Bit Overwhelming”.
The TIME Magazine Front Cover Headline Read:
“British Rapper Stormzy And Nine Other Trailblazers Who Are Shaping The World”
In Response Stormzy Explains It Triggered A Sense of Pressure.
“That’s A Lot.”
“There Was A Time That I Was Going Through This And Going Through That, That Was An Overwhelmingness That Would Have Made Me Come To Tears or Wotever. (I Might Have Cried Over That.)”
“I Came Into Music At Nineteen. Becoming A Man. I’m Going On My Journey As A Man. Trying To Figure Out How To Be The Greatest Artist.”
“On Top of That I’m In A Relationship. It Was An Amazing Relationship. There Were Ups And There Were Downs.”
“I’m Being A Family Man.”
“I’m Being A Son.”
“I’m Being A Provider.”
“I’m Also Trying To Provide A Leader For My Community. For My People.”
“It Was Very Overwhelming To Handle All Those Things Whilst Making An Album. I Would Often Crash Out, Get Super Depressed or Like Super Withdrawn or Super Reclusive, Like, And Disappear.”
“I’d Just Stay At Home. Mine Was Definitely A Feeling of Overwhelmingness Like Actually I Can’t Handle This. Which Was Also In A Mad Way Super New To Me Because I Was Always A Very Capable Child. Yeah, It Was Super Heavy.”
“Then You Go Through That Period of Your Hard Work Paying Off. The Album Did Amazingly. You Go On That Journey With It. And Then 2019 Comes.”
Previously In 2017, Stormzy’s ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ (GSAP) Became The First Grime Album To Reach Number One In The UK Album Charts.
It Was Produced In 2016, Over An 8 Month Period of Reclusion With @Frazer T Smith At His Studios In Putney And Released In February 2017.
It Includes The Three Classics Blinded By Your Grace, Too Big For Your Boots And Shut Up!
Stormzy Started Posting Lyrics & His Own Self-Produced Performances of Them Online From The Age of 11, Helped By The Existence of (Self Believe Television) SBTV, The Online Music Channel Created By The Late Jamal Edwards. He Created It Exactly For Budding Artists Such A Stormzy And Many of His Own Friends Who Were Not Being Given The Time of Day By Mainstream Music Stations.
2019 Was To Become An Historic, Iconic And Supersonic Year For Stormzy’s New Reality. He Was Invited To Headline Glastonbury. Which He Accepted And Honoured Magnificently. Although His Trousers Potentially Falling Down On Such A Global Stage Was Something of A Worry As They Perched Precariously Part Way Down His Backside, Revealing Much of His Underwear. To Say It Was A Distraction Is A Polite Understatement.
Notwithstanding Appearing Sartorially Challenged That Historic Musical Night, Stormzy Is In Fact An Education Advocate And Philanthropist Who Has Established A Scholarship Fund To Send Bright But Under-Represented Students To Cambridge University, To Study For A Degree, From One of Britain’s Oldest Centres of Learning And Academic Challenge. Clearly He Is A Visionary Who Wants To Change The Narrative For The Next Generation.
So Maybe Here The Moral of The Story Is ‘Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover’.
His Lauded Performance At Glastonbury June 2019 Was Preceded By An Awesome Performance At The BRITS February 2018, Where He Famously Slated The Prime Minister Theresa May For Her Government’s Failure To Effectively Address The Help & Support Needs of The Greenfell Fire Victims. (Following The Horrific Tower Block Fire Tragedy Which Occurred On June 14th 2017).
@stormzyofficial_‘s 1st Album Included
‘Blinded By Your Grace’, ‘Too Big For Your Boots’ & ‘Shut Up’
1st Awarding-Winning Album Released 2017
Stormzy At BRIT Awards 2018 Calls Out British Prime Minister Theresa May & Her Government For Failing To Respond To The Grenfell Tower Fire Tragedy With Requisite Care & Humanity.
The Following Year His June 2019 Glastonbury Success Was Superceded By The December 2019 Release of His Album HITH (Heavy Is The Head – That Wears The Crown). It Includes The Three Classics, ‘Own It’ – ‘Crown’ And ‘Vossi Bop’. Both Albums Were Just Two Short Years Apart. But Both Involved Alot of Emotional Work & Personal Growth.
The Release of This Second Album Was Sealed With An Announcement By The National Portrait Gallery, In The Same Month, That A Portrait of Him Was To Be Featured Amongst Kings, Queens And Politicians In One of Its Most Famous Gallery Exhibition Rooms (Room 22). So Important Had He Become As A Young, Relevant, Philanthropic, Musician And Social Commentator This Bastion of British Culture Decided To Honour Him Artistically. The Portrait Features This Second Album Cover With Him Reflected As A Modern Day Culture King Looking At His Glastonbury Union Jack Jacket (Gifted By Banksy).
By Now He Had Also Collaborated With Penguin Books To Develop The Book Publishing Imprint #Merky Books, Which They Established In 2018 To Represent More Diverse Talent In Literary Publishing.
Stormzy Takes His Stage Appearances Super Seriously And He Gives Louis At Little Lesson On How To Produce His ‘High Knee Signature Moves’. There’s The Static On The Spot Version. There’s The Travel The Whole Length of The Stage Version. There’s The Travel Back Version. And There’s The Take A Moment To Re-Charge And Regain The Energy Before You Go Again Version!
Funny Though This Moment Is, Stage Craft Is Something Mr Emmanuel Omari Jnr Chooses Not To Do By Halves. He Physically Trains For It And Goes All Out. And As A Result His Physique Is A Beautiful Human Specimen of Athletic Perfection. A Stunning Six Pack And Built Biceps And Being Physically ‘All That’ Is Engineered On A Nigh Impossible Nutrition Programme That Excludes White Rice, Potatoes And Crisps. And Where Consuming A Few Nuts In A Yogurt Is Considered An Indulgence. Ultimately It Works For Him And Is Part of What Makes Him A Worldwide Award-Winning Loveable Music Icon of Immense Proportions.
Even So, As He Makes Clear, We All Have Our Burdens And Cross To Bear. So It Would Be Easy To Say He’s Rich, He’s Got Great Status And Great Comforts…But At The End of The Day Everything Is Relative. Ultimately He Is A Human Being. And We All Have Basic Needs. Most Basic of All Is Peace of Mind, Sanity And Tranquillity. And He Currently Craves His.
Coming Off Social Media, Divinity, & Cambridge University
The Croydon King Explains How Circumstances Forced Him To Come off Social Media Which In Turn Helped Him To See The World A Whole Lot Clearer. To The Point of Divinity.
“I’m So Overwhelmed With My Reality I Can’t Be Coming On Here And Consuming Everyone Else’s Reality.”
“I Can’t Hear My Thoughts.”
“I Always Say When I Came Off Social Media I Was Able To Hear God.”
As They Continue Their Chat, Thearoux Mentions That The All Female Pop Band ‘Little Mix’ Have Had Circa 400 Million Views For Their Track ‘Power’ Featuring Stormzy.
The Musician Acknowledges That He Received A Lot of Ridicule And Derision For It At The Time But Says He’s So Proud of That Song.
“The Fakest Thing I Could Do Is Like Little Mix But Not Work With Them Because I’ve Got To Keep It Real”.
“I’ve Never Made An Artistic Decision Without It Being Soley Off The Basis of Music Ever In My Life. And I’ve Always Said If I Stick To That I’ll Have A Career.
[LeighAnne Pinnock’s Documentary Race, Pop & Power Was Broadcast May 2021 And Is Still Available on BBC iPlayer. It Is A Brave, Powerful & Important Account of Racism Within The Music Industry. Ironically The Issue of Colourism Arose Afterwards With Some Members of The Black Community Arguing That As A Woman of Dual Heritage She Is Light-Skinned And Benefits From The Privilege of Better Treatment Than Darker Members of The Black Community And So She Was Not Qualfied To Talk On Such Issues. So She Suffered A Double Whammy. This Is Both Unfair, Unfortunate And Self-Evidently Inaccurate.
She Deserves Credit For Making Such An Important Documentary, As A British Citizen She Has A Human Right To Freedom of Expression, And She’s Sharing Her Own Experiences of Racism As The Only Black Woman In A Four Piece Girl Band, Managed By & Operating Within The Mainstream Music Industry.
That’s Girl Power. And Hers Has Grown Since The Original Little Mix & Stormzy ‘Power’ Collaboration Because Her Documentary Is One of The Most Important Contributions To The Music Industry In Its Entire History. And We Salute Her For It.
It’s Clear To See How A Humanitarian Such Stormzy Could Now Have Even Higher Regard For Her And Her Band. So It Is Little Wonder He Stands By His Musical Decision @littlemix].
Stormzy Collaborated With @Little Mix on The 2017 Single ‘Power’
He Describes Himself As “Unapologetically Black”.
“My Issues Are Going To Be Black. The Things I Care About Are Mostly Going To Be About Black People.”
“I Used To Feel I Had A Duty To Explain. Now I’m Tired of Explaining. That’s Dearest To My Heart. Coming From Where I’m Coming From That’s A Pressing Matter On My Heart.”
He Speaks of His Cambridge Scholarship Programme And The Fact That There Was A Lot of Backlash Around It At The Time.
The Music Maestro Mr Omari Says He’s Learnt From His Relationship Mistakes
When President And First Lady Barrack& Michelle Obama Appeared On The International Stage As Part of The Presidential Campaign of 2008 They Showed The World Their Political Star Power Magic, The Likes of Which We Had Never Seen Before. One of Their Dynamic USPs Was Their Genuine Love And Affection For Each Other, Which They Simply Chose Not To Deny In Public. They Held Hands, Made PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) And Yet Still Managed To Simultaneously Remain Professional In A Way Which Was Revolutionary.
That Truly Impacted The World Stage In A Positive Way And Other Political Leaders Have Tried And Failed To Emulate It Ever Since. In Some Cases Embarrassingly. We’ll Mention No Names (As We Are Very Particular About Who We Choose To Give Time & Space To In Our Magazine. But You No Doubt Know Who We Mean. And At Least One Particular Incident). But Generally Speaking Political Couples Have Become More Openly Affectionate.
And That’s Filtered Down To The Streets And Impacted Communities Locally. Notably Brothers And Sisters Started Holding Hands More Just Walking Down The Street.
Stormzy’s Openness About His Mistake In Love During His Last Relationship Reminds Us of That Pivotal Public Relationship Moment During The Obama Presidency.
He Is Refreshingly Open About The Mistake He Made And The Price He’s Paid, Having Lost The Woman He Loved As A Result.
They Say Things Happen For Reason. And We Wish Him New Found Love In The Fullness of Time. Be It By Rekindling His Old Flame or Finding A New One. Either He Seems Determined Not To Make The Same Mistake Again. Not Least of All Because It Caused Him Alot of Emotional Pain. ANd No Doublt HerToo.
His Transparency With Louis Will No Doubt Help Other Men With Expressing Their Relationship Feelings Too, Bearing In Mind He Is Such An Icon.
“The Past Two Years For Me,
After My Break Up Especially,
And Glastonbury
And The Second Album Coming Out
And The Pandemic
Between Those Four/Five Factors It Just Allowed A Lot of Growth And Self-Reflection.
My Break Up, That Was Probably The Biggest Catalyst For Growth As A Man.
Okay, You Make A Mistake And You Lose Someone You Love, Someone You Care For, Someone Special To You.
That’s Probably The Biggest Loss A Man Can Have Innit’.
(Away From Someone Passing Away. Away From Death That’s The Biggest Loss You Can Have).
I Didn’t Do What A Man Should Do To Fully Appreciate Love And Care For His Woman.
Long Story Short, I Learnt From That If I Don’t Ever Want To Feel Like That Again And If I Believe God Will Bless Me With An Amazing Woman, A Family And Marriage And All of Those Things, It’s Like I Have To Do The Necessary Work To Never Be In That Situation Again.”
[Amen!]
An Absent Father, Mental Health Issues, Spirituality & Not Dating
“At The Time You Don’t Even See Anything In That Until You Grow Up And Say Okay, That Might Have Meant Something That My Dad Weren’t Around.”
So Observes Stormzy As He Explains To Louis Theroux That The Reality For Him And A Lot of His “Bredrins” Was That, As He Puts It “A Lot of Us Weren’t Coming From Two Parent Households. It Was Just Your Mum.”
He Explains That He Has Never Been To Jail But He Has Found Himself In Court For Carrying An Offensive Weapon For Protection And A Feeling of Being More In Control of “Any Situation” He May Come Across. He’s Refers To The Situation As Horrific Having “Been Stabbed A Few Times” But Says “Even How Deep I Got Into It. I Know People Who Got Way Deeper”.
“You Go On That Journey And It Can Lead You Anywhere. It’s A Random Box of Prison, Death, Becoming An Entrepreneur Because You Learnt To Be Streetwise, Now Applying That Becoming A Musician, Becoming A Footballer. But of Course The Most Likely One Is Harmed. Dead. Or In Jail.”
He Explains A Lot of People Also Lose Their Mental Health. Badly! Showing Great Sensitivity He Says He’s Always Weary About Speaking About It Because Whilst It’s Easy To Talk About From The Suburbs or The Sofa It Is People’s Lives. Lives Sometimes Lost To Trauma or Drugs For Instance.
As A Man of Faith, He Does Have A Certain Sensitivity. He Attends A Prayer Meeting In Camberwell (Organised By His Sister DJ Rachel Anstiy, Bible Classes At Home And Sunday Services In Brixton).
He Later Talks About His Lack of Dating Finesse Having Previously Been Unfamiliar With The Process. This Is Frankly A Very Sad Example of The Dating Habits Among His Peer Group At The Time (Or Lack Thereof).
“I’m Just Not Well Versed In The Realms of Love, Relationships And Dating.”
It Is Also Clear That Growing Up He Did Not Have Any Impactful Parental or Peer Group Examples. And Furthermore Non To Speak of In Terms of His Father’s Treatment of His Mother. The Following Lyrics (From Lay Me Bare) Say It All And They Were Written When He Was Just 23. (As Read Out By Louis, Who Notably Asked Stormzy What The Lyrics Were – Despite Literally Having Them In His Pocket All The Time Anyway…Like We Said, Louis Knows What He Does… & He Loves Doing It ).
“Like Bro I Can’t Believe I Saw My Dad, Still Up In The Ends, Still Driving Cabs. He Said ‘Yo Son I Need A Car’.
I Kiss My Teeth And Turn My Back.
Like You Ain’t Seen My Face For Years. You Ain’t Seen My Face For Time.
And The First Thing You’re Asking For Is That.
F**K You. That’s Where I Draw The Line.
Should Have Dashed Through Iraq Like Keep The Change.
And F**k Letting Go.
I’ll Keep The Pain.
23 Years I’m Still The Same.
When You Hear This I Hope You Feel Ashamed
Because We Were Broke Like What The F**K?
Mum Did Well To Hold Us Up.
Yet She Still Forgave You’re A**e.
But Mums Is Cool.
I’m Cold As F**k.
F**k That I’m Still Not Over This.
F**k That.
Nah.
I’m Still Not Over This.
Five Years Later, Now 28, Stormzy Explains He’s Changed Since Then.
And The Song On His Latest Album Called ‘Please’ Reflects This Change.
“Please Lord Give Me The Strength To Forgive My Dad For His Is Floored, And So Am I. So Who Am I To Not. To Not Forgive A Man Who Tries. I See A Soul I Know It Cries. But With This Man I’d Rather Paint And Turn This Broke Picture Into Something It Ain’t. This Pain I’d Rather Hold Because It Made Me Who I Am. It’s Probably Time I Let It Go.”
@MarkMattockStudio @AndrewTimmsy @National Portrait Gallery
Stormzy’s Self-Development And The Self-Evident, Momentous, New Found Maturity That Has Come With It, Is A Beautiful Thing. Moving And Inspiring. Compared To Before He Now Realizes & Acknowledges That He Has The Power To Be Graceful To His Father And Is Able To Finally Empathize. Because, He Says, It’s The Same Grace He Once Wanted From Maya.
To Those With A Trained Eye This Appears To Take Louis By Surprise (Albeit That He Appears To Play It Down).
The Paternal/Familial Omari Bridge Is Not Entirely Rebuilt Yet, But It’s Clear Emmanuel Jnr Is Working On It. It’s A Process. And Hopefully Father & Son Will Eventually Really & Truly Reconnect On A Level That Works For Both of Them.
Resilient, Retaining A Deep Love of Music And Ready To Settle Down…
2nd Album Released December 2019
Included On H.I.T.H Are The Awesome Tracks:
‘Crown’ ‘Own It’ ‘Vossi Bop’ & ‘Superheroes’
Professionally, What’s Refreshing And Endearing About Stormzy Is His Desire Is To Make Music That Moves People, To Be The Best He Can Be In His Industry And His Disinterest In Building An Empire Like Jay-Z, As He Does Not Wish To Put Such Pressure on Himself. Most Impressive Is That He Is Self-Aware, Self-Assured, And Sufficiently Confident To Be So Open And Honest About Saying That. There’s No False Bravado. No Self-Serving Swagger.
No Superficiality And No Just Saying What He Thinks People Want To Hear. There’s Just Naked Self-Development. And It’s A Joy To See.
He’s Gone Through Self-Reflection, Understands The Folly of Emotional Self-Destruction, The Power And Importance of Redemption. And Having Done The Work, He Is Now Resilient, Experienced And Content Enough To Know That He Is Enough. As A Man Who Is Very Much Aware He Was Once A Boy! And Who’s “Had Enough of Being A Kid.”
Now Most of All He Wants To Build A Family of His Own And A Home Which He Can Share With Family And Friends. “All Eating Around A Big Dinner Table And Celebrating Easter With Easter Egg Hunts And Christmas With Lots of Bright Lights And Decorations”
This Language And Behaviour Is Demonstrative of Man In Touch With Himself And His Mental Health. He Knows Who Is And What He’s About. He’s Not Reliant On The Opinion of Anyone Else. First And Foremost He Seeks To Be True To Himself.
He Says of His New Album He Has Made The Music He Has Always Wanted To Make And He Has Never Been More Proud.
He Says It’s Soul Music. Not ‘Soul’ As In The Musical Genre But ‘Soul’ As In The Spiritual Manifestation of His Inner Being.
Well Was That Not Always What ‘Soul’ Music Is In The Truest Sense Anyway? And Has ‘Soul’ Music Not Always Been Great. Therein Lies A Great Topic For A Potentially Great Debate (Especially Including Some Musical And Spiritual Aficionados!)
Meantime There Are Sometimes Different Pathways To The Same Destination. Stormzy Has Just Been On One Hell of A Journey. And Now, Finally, As He Says…It Feels Like He’s Truly Arrived!
Sometimes It’s Important Just To Meet People Where They Are.
Stormzy Is A Man of Our Times. An Icon. A Singing Wordsmith. And Now A Leader. In The Community. In Education. And In The Mental Health Arena.
It’s A Fact. Let’s Own It. Mind. Body. And Soul!
Louis Theroux’s Interview With Stormzy Produces A Powerful, Important & Potentially Very Healing Documentary, Looking At Many Contemporary Current Affairs.
Including:
Mental Health.
Absent Fathers.
And
Family.
It’s Always The Quiet Ones…
Backing off (Anti-) Social Media, Tuning Into A Higher Medium, And Praying For A Wife & Kids, Mr Omari Junior Has Turned Over A New Leaf & Looks Forward To Looking After His Own Branch of The Family Tree…
Louis Theroux Interviews Stormzy
Tuesday October 25 2022
Black History Month UK. Every October
TheOrator.Press ~ A New, Monthly, Online, Independent Magazine 