{"id":974041,"date":"2019-12-13T08:30:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T15:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=925641"},"modified":"2019-12-13T08:30:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T15:30:03","slug":"qa-stormzy-on-u-k-election-going-mainstream-with-grime-making-that-expensive-rap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/qa-stormzy-on-u-k-election-going-mainstream-with-grime-making-that-expensive-rap\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Stormzy on U.K. Election, Going Mainstream With Grime, Making That \u2018Expensive\u2019 Rap"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In August, the British grime star Stormzy<\/a> was fresh off his first U.K. Number One (\u201cVossi Bop\u201d<\/a>), a historic headlining set at Glastonbury and was climbing the U.K. Singles chart again. The song was a remix of \u201cTake Me Back to London,\u201d<\/a> a collaboration with Ed Sheeran, but it wouldn\u2019t reach Number One without some controversy. As it rose, Wiley, one of grime\u2019s originators and most revered figures, sent out a series<\/a> of since-deleted subtweets: \u201cI\u2019m sick of people using grime to look good for two minutes\u201d and \u201cAnyone who uses us and our sounds are culture vultures.\u201d A joke about breaking out his \u201cguitar and foot pedal\u201d made the subject of Wiley\u2019s ire clear (though he also leveled the same cultural appropriation accusations at Drake). In a follow-up interview<\/a>, Wiley doubled down and said Sheeran had made things difficult for him back when they collaborated in 2011, a claim the pop star denied<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stormzy, for his part, responded first on Twitter \u2014 \u201cNo Wiley you know Ed been doing this from early, been a real one from early, you can\u2019t question that\u2026 You know I love you and respect you brother but nah don\u2019t do that\u201d \u2014 and then on record. Rap battles and clashes are a key part of grime\u2019s DNA, but Stormzy did the furthest thing from drop a diss track: \u201cWiley Flow,\u201d released a few weeks after the dust-up, was a blistering homage that opened with a sample of Wiley himself discussing his legacy, and later found Stormzy lovingly interpolating two classic Wiley tracks, \u201cBad Em Up\u201d and \u201cNightbus Dubplate.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWiley Flow\u201d now appears on Stormzy\u2019s new album, Heavy Is the Head<\/em>, and caps off a telling three-song sequence that includes a song called \u201cPop Boy,\u201d featuring Aitch (who also appeared on the \u201cTake Me Back to London\u201d remix), and another tune called, \u201cOwn It,\u201d<\/a> featuring Burna Boy and, yes, Ed Sheeran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did that so specifically,\u201d Stormzy tells Rolling Stone <\/em>on the phone from the U.K. \u201cAs much as I\u2019m a grime MC, I\u2019m also gospel, I\u2019m R&B, I\u2019m pop and I\u2019m soul. I\u2019m all these different things. Becoming a mainstream prospect, I\u2019ve always known that that doesn\u2019t go hand-in-hand with underground and authenticity, just in terms of how people perceive things. But I\u2019ve always believed in myself enough to know I can do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavy Is the Head<\/em> follows Stormzy\u2019s 2017 debut Gang Signs & Prayer<\/em><\/a> and finds him contemplating a meteoric rise that began with YouTube<\/a> freestyles<\/a> over classic grime beats and hit its first true peak this summer when he became the first black-British solo act to headline Glastonbury. At the same time, he\u2019s emerged as a potent political voice, pushing for greater inclusion for people of color in Britain, launching scholarship programs and even a publishing house, Merky Books, for young writers of colors. Stormzy was active in the run-up to the U.K. general election, a prominent supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour, who ultimately fell to the Tories and Boris Johnson<\/a> Thursday (it\u2019s a coincidence, he says, that Heavy Is the Head<\/em> was released the day after the election). Speaking a week earlier of a possible Johnson win, Stormzy says, \u201cI got asked that earlier and it was the first time it dawned on me that it could become a reality; it\u2019s not a campaign anymore. I\u2019ve got to be hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n