Stormzy

Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. was born on 26 July 1993 in Croydon, London. His mother is Ghanaian, and he is a cousin of rapper Nadia Rose. He grew up in South Norwood, London, with his mother, brother, and two sisters. Stormzy did not come from a particularly musical household, though he liked music. He attended Stanley Tech South Norwood. He began rapping at the age of 11 and would clash with older rappers at his local youth club.

After garnering attention on the UK underground music scene via his Wicked Skengman series of freestyles over classic grime beats, Stormzy released his debut EP Dreamers Disease independently in July 2014. On 22 October 2014, Stormzy won Best Grime Act at the MOBO Awards. Later that month he became the first unsigned rapper to appear on Later... with Jools Holland performing the song "Not That Deep" from Dreamers Disease.

In November 2014, Stormzy collaborated with rapper Chip and Shalo on the track "I'm Fine", also appearing in a video for the song.

On 7 January 2015, Stormzy came number 3 in the "BBC Introducing top 5" on Radio 1. In March 2015 he released the single "Know Me From", which entered the UK Singles Chart at number 49. In September 2015, he released a final instalment to his "WickedSkengMan" freestyle series, "WickedSkengMan 4", onto iTunes, along with a studio version of his "Shut Up" freestyle over XTC's Functions on the Low instrumental. The track debuted at number 18 on the UK chart dated 24 September, becoming Stormzy's first top 40 hit and the first ever freestyle to reach the top 40 in the United Kingdom.

On 12 December 2015, Stormzy performed "Shut Up" during British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua's ring-walk for his fight versus Dillian Whyte. Originally, "Shut Up", released as part of the "WickedSkengMan 4" single EP in September 2015, charted at number 59. Since the performance, it began climbing up the iTunes chart and into the top 40. As a result, Stormzy launched a Christmas number 1 campaign to get the song to number 1. It generated a large amount of support which made it enter the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart on 18 December 2015 at number 8, a week prior to the Christmas number-1 week, succeeding the chart position of "WickedSkengMan 4".

In April 2016, Stormzy released the non-album song "Scary" before he went into hiatus.

In May 2016, Stormzy endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. In an interview with the newspaper The Guardian, he spoke of his admiration for Corbyn's activism.

After a year's hiatus from social media, Stormzy returned in early February 2017 via a series of billboard campaigns across London displaying the hashtag #GSAP 24.02. The album title was announced to be Gang Signs & Prayer. The album was released on 24 February 2017 and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on 3 March 2017.

He has reached number one on the UK Singles Chart three times; firstly as part of "Artists for Grenfell" on 23 June 2017 with "Bridge Over Troubled Water", secondly with his own solo single "Vossi Bop", which debuted at number one upon its entry, ahead of "Me!" by Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie by some 500 combined sales, and thirdly with his collaboration with Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran, "Own It". Stormzy later released the singles "Crown", "Sounds of the Skeng" and "Wiley Flow", before announcing his second album, Heavy Is the Head, for release on 13 December 2019. Stormzy was recognised for both his contributions to music and his activism, landing him at number 5 in the Top 10 of the annual Powerlist in 2020, with an estimated net worth of £20 million in 2020.

On 24 June 2017, Stormzy performed a chant of "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn" to the tune of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army on the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. He also performed a rap he had written for the victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire, telling the festivalgoers to demand that the authorities "tell the... truth" and for the "Government to be held accountable". In September of that year, after being presented with the Solo Artist of the Year award by Corbyn at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, Stormzy called Theresa May a "paigon", a Jamaican Patois word used to describe an untrustworthy person. Later the same month, the conservative commentator Iain Dale placed Stormzy at Number 100 on his list of "The 100 most influential people on the Left", describing him as "Corbs' favourite Grime artist".

In November 2017, it was revealed that Stormzy had posted a series of messages on Twitter in 2011 that were deemed to be homophobic. These included a tweet where he referred to a gay character on the soap opera EastEnders as a "fucking fag". He also asked another user who was discussing using hair straighteners if they were a "fag" and urged his followers to "put on BBC1 this little black boy is a fucking fag". He later posted a series of tweets, stating:

On 21 February 2018, Stormzy performed a freestyle at the Brit Awards, calling out May for her inaction in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire the previous year. The following day, 10 Downing Street issued a statement defending the Prime Minister.

In July 2018 it was announced that Penguin Random House division William Heinemann was to launch a new imprint in partnership with Stormzy, called #Merky Books. The imprint launched with Stormzy's first book, Rise Up, in autumn 2018, followed by Taking Up Space: The Black Girl’s Manifesto for Change by Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi in summer 2019. That Reminds Me, a novel in verse by Derek Owusu, is the most recent, released in November 2019.

In November 2019, along with other musicians, Stormzy endorsed Corbyn in the 2019 UK general election with a call to end austerity. He also said "people led change can be possible under a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government". He described the Labour leader as "the first man in a position of power who is committed to giving the power back to the people" and branded Boris Johnson "a sinister man". In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, Stormzy issued a statement via his label, that he plans to donate £1 million a year for 10 years to charities, organisations and movements that are committed to fight racial inequality, justice reform and black empowerment in the United Kingdom. In an interview with the BBC, Stormzy said, "Black people have been playing on an uneven field for far too long and this pledge is a continuation in the fight to finally try and even it".

Stormzy is a Christian, on the BBC's Christmas day lineup in 2019 he read a passage from the Gospel of Luke. Stormzy was previously involved in a long term relationship with presenter Maya Jama.

He also attracted controversy on 7 October 2020, when grime artist Chip released a video of Stormzy and several others at Chip's house in June of that year. The video was posted on Twitter and Instagram captioned "June... When you get sent a video of Stormzy & friends tryna run up on your house." The event resulted in the police being called. Chip deleted the video within a few hours, but Stormzy was widely criticized for causing a heated argument with Chip's family and refusing to leave the building. The altercation was allegedly in response to a percieved diss by Chip on the track Waze.

Stormzy birthday bash

Stormzy celebrated his 27th birthday over the weekend, with a party with friends and family at his South West London mansion.

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Grime artist Stormzy 'shuts down' Thorpe Park for his birthday

London grime artist Stormzy hired out the whole of Thorpe Park for his entourage and fans for a bumper 23rd birthday party. He treated well-wishers to a freebie at the theme park on Tuesday. Up to 200 fans turned up along with his close friends. He celebrated with a gig, and a birthday cake shaped like the Adidas logo. He tweeted: “And massive love to all the good people down at @THORPEPARK nothing but love and gratitude to you all yday meant a lot.”

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There were rumours the Beckhams would be spending £100k on Brooklyn Beckham’s 21st birthday and the resulting bash was certainly a lavish one. The party, which raged on until the early hours on Sunday, saw the likes of Stormzy, former Spice Girls and Brooklyn’s girlfriend Nicola Peltz let their hair down. 

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Stormzy attends the Rinse FM 20th Birthday Anniversary Dinner at St Martins Lane Hotel on December 22, 2014 in London, England.