It’s been three years since Stormzy released his sophomore studio LP Heavy Is The Head, a 16-song offering with additional features from Headie One, Tiana Major9, Yebba, H.E.R., Aitch, Ed Sheeran, and Burna Boy. The project further solidified the South London emcee’s place in music’s upper echelon, topping the UK charts and garnering a platinum plaque.
Since then, Stormzy has remained largely off the radar from a musical standpoint. He did briefly engage in a battle with Wiley, which produced the scathing diss tracks “Disappointed” and “Still Disappointed.” He also provided his bars on songs from his peers, including Tion Wayne’s “I Dunno,” Loski’s “Flavour,” Ghetts’ “Skengman,” Yaw TOG’s “Sore (Remix),” and Knucks’ “Die Hard.”
Yesterday (Sept. 22), Stormzy marked his official return to wax with “MEL MADE ME DO IT,” a Knox Brown-produced effort that’s named after the rapper’s stylist Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe. Over a whopping seven minutes, Big Mike covers a lot of ground with rewind-worthy bars about his current success, constant hate from detractors, and much more:
“I’ve been the GOAT for so long I guess it’s not exciting when I win, boohoo, someone grab the violins, every time I try a ting, top bins like Haile when he sings, so of course, they don’t like me, I’m the king, aight, tell me why oh why would I reply to him? I leave him hanging like Kyrie on the rim, hm, where do I begin?”
Courtesy of KLVDR comes a matching visual that’s about as star-studded as a blockbuster film. In addition to an appearance from the song’s aforementioned namesake, Usain Bolt, Zeze Mills, José Mourinho, Little Simz, Dave, Julie Adenuga, Jme, Headie One, Megaman, and more provide cameos for the cinematic clip. Towards the end, Stormzy pays tribute to the late Jamal Edwards with a shot of his mother Brenda and sister Tanisha holding his portrait next to GRM Daily’s Koby “Posty” Hagan and LinkUpTV’s Rashid Kasirye. Check it all out below.