Stormzy's 5 Best Grime Classics

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Stormzy has taken 2015 by storm. The grime emcee had hits with “Shut Up” and “WickedSkengMan4,” marking impending fame that will catapult him to join the likes of Wiley, Skepta and JME. Not to mention that the 22-year-old joined Kanye West on stage at the Brit Awards while winning multiple accolades and touring the world. Regardless of having so much to be proud of, the Thornton Heath native stays humble and true to his roots — a trait that has done him very well. As grime takes on a bigger role stateside (with Skepta rubbing elbows with Drake and holding a sold-out tour), we’re surely going to hear a lot more from Stormzy. Check out an excerpt from his interview with MR PORTER below, and scroll through to see what he chose as his top five grime classics.

“I was probably 10 or 11,” Stormzy says, remembering when he first started to emcee. “Me and my friends were all rapping. I was listening to people from my area, like Giggs, Konan and Roadside G’s.” That grime is rooted in English life, rather than American hip-hop culture, is central to its appeal, and it shines through when Stormzy uses the word “arse” rather than “ass” in his rhymes. “I need to sound British,” he says. “You never hear an American trying to sound English, so why am I going to try to sound American?” It’s clearly something they respect across the pond; last year Drake inked himself with the initials of grime group and label Boy Better Know, while north London MC Skepta sold out a triumphant US tour.

Grime artists have been criticised in the past for rejecting their musical roots and courting house or pop to achieve chart success. While his accent and vocabulary won’t change, Stormzy will be spreading his musical wings on the debut album he’s currently recording with producers SOS, AKA Messers Mo and Mikey Samuels. How will he overcome the inevitable resistance among some of his original fanbase to a change in his sound? “I need to make sure [the music’s] amazing. I wouldn’t go poppy, because that’s something I don’t understand, but I’ve been listening to R&B and soul my whole life. It’s part of me.”

Mr Kanye West isn’t the only established name keen to be associated with Stormzy. The Londoner recently posted a photograph of himself in the studio with actor Mr Idris Elba, who’s a part-time DJ and rapper when he’s not starring in movies such as Beasts Of No Nation and TV shows The Wire and Luther. “He’s one of those people you can learn so much from,” says Stormzy. “Not just working on a track, but in life.” Meanwhile, Stormzy is presumably learning about corporate life from his work on the Apple-owned Beats 1 radio station – he presents his own show called #MERKY every Friday night – and Google, which recently featured him in an advert for its Chromecast service. When asked if his connections with two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley are part of some grand plan, Stormzy laughs. “No! That’s why it’s so sick – I get as confused as everybody else. Sometimes I think, ‘What do they want with me?’” Does he worry that he could lose something of himself as he moves from the purity of the grime scene towards the mainstream? “If I turn up and I’m myself, I ain’t got to worry about someone misinterpreting me, or being made to do something I don’t want to do.”

Stormzy’s Top 5 Grime Classics