Page 23 - Powerlist 2020

5 The Top 10

Stormzy

Grime artist

S tormzy, aka Michael Omari, is not a man who spends two students a year to attend the university. He is covering
long out of the limelight.
their fees and paying maintenance grants for up to four years
His headline performance at the 2019 Glastonbury
Festival has been described as ‘historic’ and credited with of study.
Last year, he used his performance at the Brit Awards
putting grime music and black British culture on the world to call out then Prime Minister Theresa May for not doing
map. It wasn’t that long ago that grime was an underground enough for the victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
genre little heard of outside of London. Described as the ‘voice of the people’, Michael began
Stormzy’s criticism of Boris Johnson will probably be rapping at the age of 11 and turned to music full-time
as well remembered from Glastonbury as his music. after working in quality assurance at an oil refinery in
His ‘chuck Boris’ mantra even ended up in the House of Southampton.
Commons when Labour MP Dawn Butler used the expression Initially gaining attention on grime’s underground scene,
to goad the Tory benches. he later won Best Grime Act at the MOBO Awards, then
2019 has been a busy year for Stormzy. In March it was became the first unsigned rapper to appear on Later with
announced that he will play a newspaper editor in the Jools Holland. He broke into the BBC Introducing Top Five
planned BBC 1 adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s book on Radio 1, the UK Singles Chart and become the first ever
Noughts & Crosses. In April he pulled out of a music festival freestyler to reach the top 40.
in Austria after he said his manager and friends were Stormzy’s most successful song to date is the platinum-
‘racially profiled’ and stopped and searched by security at selling Shut Up, which was initially released as a freestyle
the venue. on YouTube. When it was officially released, it got to number
His single Crown, released in June, criticised critics eight on the UK Singles Chart.
who called his scheme to pay the fees of two black students In August 2018 he launched a scholarship for black
to Cambridge University ‘racist’. The previous year the students to study at the University of Cambridge. It will fund
rapper announced that he would be funding scholarships for tuition fees and maintainance grants for up to four years.

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