Stormzy: Major record labels don’t know what to do with black artists

The grime star released debut album Gang Signs & Prayer on his own label
Speaking out: Stormzy says major labels don't know what to do with black artists (Picture: Rankin Stylist: Stevie Westgarth)
Rankin
Alistair Foster8 March 2017
The Weekender

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Grime star Stormzy says major record labels do not “know what to do with black artists”.

The London rapper, 23, was nominated for best British breakthrough act at last month’s Brits, where he performed with Ed Sheeran.

He is topping the charts with his debut album Gang Signs & Prayer, released on his own label, #Merky. In an interview with photographer Rankin’s Hunger magazine, he said: “I’ve never seen a major label know what to do with black artists.”

Tickets for the Mobo winner’s 17-date UK tour sold out within days of going on sale. He said: “There’s gonna be way more successful young black people coming through.

So I’m just here saying, ‘Look you better get ready because there’s hundreds of us, coming and we look like this and we dress like this and we talk like this and we’re here.”

Stormzy, real name Michael Omari, grew up in south London and says he was often stopped by police.

Behind the scenes: Stormzy on shoot
Rankin/Hunger Magazine

“When I was growing up in Thornton Heath, from about 13 all the way up to 18 I got searched every day,” he said. “[It stopped] when I stopped walking around on the streets. But now I have a nice car, so I get pulled over instead.”

Last month he claimed police smashed through the front door of his west London home because they mistook him for a burglar. At the time he tweeted: “Woke up to Feds destroying my front door coz apparently I’m a burglar who burgles his own home.”

Read the full interview with Stormzy in Hunger (Picture: Rankin Stylist: Stevie Westgarth)
Rankin

Stormzy insisted he is still “gonna live where I live” , adding: “I’m gonna have my hood up, wear all black and I’m gonna be in a first-class lounge, or in this mad restaurant, or in this posh hotel and be like, ‘Oh, you didn’t think young black people could be here?’”

Recalling an encounter in a high-end watch shop, he added: “Usually when you walk in these high-end places, they’ll offer you a drink, take your coat, offer you a seat. We didn’t get none of that.

“I asked, he told me the price, and I did it like, ‘Oh, you didn’t think young black men are supposed to have this money, did you?’”

The full interview appears in issue 12 of Hunger magazine, out next Thursday. Visit hungertv.com.

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