Further to announcing his highly anticipated third album, ‘This Is What I Mean,’ Stormzy has shared ‘Hide & Seek,’ his first official single from the album. Returning to social media after a nearly 3-year hiatus, Stormzy also shares an intimate studio clip of the making of ‘Hide & Seek,’ shot during the album music camp at Osea Island in early 2021. Watch the clip HERE.
On the release of his third album, Stormzy stands not only as one of Britain’s most accomplished rappers, but one of its most accomplished musicians of any genre and a cultural icon. Through his new record, he’s delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between urgent modern treatise, soul, and hip-hop.
A bold, brave and courageous leap forward from his critically acclaimed previous two #1 records, ‘Gang Signs & Prayer,’ and ‘Heavy Is The Head,’ this isn’t music simply for the pop charts but rather, an intimate love letter to music and one that showcases intensely personal and lyrical themes which lay bare the vulnerabilities, regret, frailties, healing, joy, and triumph in a manner and to an extent that reframes the notion of what rap artists traditionally might do and be.
The confidence which drove the album stemmed from a deeper and far more spiritual place than we have seen from Stormzy previously. For all the success and awards that he has accrued during his brief, meteoric career, the lockdown that ensued from the coronavirus pandemic gave him one commodity he’d long lacked: time. And thanks to his sense of accomplishment following Glastonbury he was, for the first time, in a position to make the most of it.
Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from a Stormzy music camp in Osea Island – a remote island in the Essex estuary that’s only accessible via a Roman Causeway for four hours a day at low tide. Surrounded by leading-edge producers and musicians (who will all be unveiled in due course), each and every morning they would eat and pray together and then spend the rest of the time driven to creative heights by each other’s talents.
“When you hear about music camps they always sound intense and sombre,” says Stormzy. ““People saying: “We need to make an album.” “We need to make some hit records.” But this felt beautifully free. We’re all musicians but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the bi-product to that was very beautiful music. Because when you marry that ethos with world-class musicians and the best producers, writers, and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.”
The net result is that while ‘This Is What I Mean’ sounds very much like Stormzy, it sounds like no Stormzy album you have ever heard before.
‘This Is What I Mean’ tracklist:
01. Fire + Water
02. This Is What I Mean
03. FireBabe
04. Please
05. Need You
06. Hide & Seek
07. My Presidents Are Black
08. Sampha’s Plea
09. Holy Spirit
10. Bad Blood
11. I Got My Smile Back
12. Give It To The Water