Stormzy: eight things you need to know

Stormzy’s debut album ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ has swept through the UK like rising global sea levels through the climate denying White House, setting a new standard for British grime music. But we’re only just getting to know this enigmatic new fulcrum of UK rap, so here’s some vital statistics on the man no-one’s yet calling The Stormzatron.

 

Who is Stormzy? The at-a-glance bio

 

Born Michael Omari in Thornton Heath, South London, Stormzy has been rapping since 11, eventually ditching plans to become a quality assurance officer on an oil refinery to follow his musical destiny. After making his name on his own YouTube channel, his series of ‘Wicked Skengman’ freestyles brought him to the attention of the wider scene and his first EPs began appearing in 2014. By the following year he was being tipped for greatness by BBC Introducing and nipping at the heels of the Top 40 with his second single ‘Know Me From’. Come September 2015 his freestyle of ‘Shut Up’ over XTC’s ‘Functions On The Low’ instrumental became the first ever freestyle to break the UK Top 40, hitting Number 18 and setting The Stormzatron (anybody?) on the road to releasing grime’s first ever UK Number One album in ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’.

 

 

What is Stormzy’s net worth?

 

On the back of his album breaking the record for the most number of streams in its first week of release, Stormzy crashed into the Forbes 2017 Cash Princes list with an estimated net worth of £1.5 million. Shut up!

 

What is Stormzy’s height?

 

Tall boy, our Stormzo, towering over his contemporaries at a ceiling-scraping 6’5”. His good mate Ed Sheeran must feel even more like a hobbit when they’re hanging out.

 

 

What is Stormzy’s age?

 

Something of an early starter, Stormzy (born 26 July 1993) has bagged his first Number One at the age of just 23 (at the time of writing). Honestly, there are things in the back of our fridge older than him.

 

Why was Stormzy almost arrested in his own home?

 

In February, Stormzy Tweeted a photo of his front door, after several panels were kicked in by “Feds” while he was sleeping off the Elle Style Awards. “Apparently I’m a burglar who burgles his own home,” he wrote, insisting that the police pay for the door to be repaired. A police statement read: "Police were called to an address in West Brompton at 00:55hrs on Tuesday 14th February to a report of a conspiracy to burgle a ground floor flat, believed to have been vacant. Officers attended and forced entry to the property, and found there to be two lawful occupants inside. Officers remained at the property until it was made secure.”

 

 

Woke up to Feds destroying my front door coz apparently I'm a burglar who burgles his own home. @metpoliceuk need your bank details still http://pic.twitter.com/fGH1fsePHv

— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) February 14, 2017

 

Where can you see Stormzy tour?

 

Having recently completed an extensive tour of the UK and Europe, he hits the summer festival season hard, with appearances confirmed at Glastonbury, Park Life, TRNSMT and V amongst many others across the globe. He also hits Australia and the US before the end of the year. Check the full schedule on his website.

 

Is Stormzy clever?

 

Cleverer than most. A self-proclaimed “boffin”, he received six A* grades at GCSE and has spoken at Oxford University, discussing sexism in grime and his mum’s appearances in his videos.

 

What’s Stormzy’s beef with boxer Dillian Whyte?

 

Back in January 2016, Stormzy performed ‘Shut Up’ as British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua’s entrance music for a fight against Dillian Whyte, adapting the lyrics to rap “Man try say he’s better than AJ, tell my man shut up”. Whyte lost the fight but sized up against Stormzy in a post-match interview: “Listen, if you're from south London you know what the codes are from day one,” he said. “If he is south, he sticks with south. You don't side with a man from north London. I'd knock him out. I'd give him the real one and knock him out. Listen, Stormzy wouldn't dare say ‘shut up’ to my face and that's a fact.”

 

A few days later Stormzy dropped his ‘One Take (Freestyle)’ taking another pop at Whyte: “I clocked it/My man's lost it, man held a beating/The ref should've stopped it, mopped it/Had one chance you flopped it, threatening me won't make you the heavyweight champ, rudeboy, stop this.” That’s a second beat down for Whyte, then.

 

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What is grime? The rappers, albums and videos that made the scene of 2017

It’s barged its way off the streets, swept across the UK, conquered the Brits and now it’s coming for you, America. Grime is on fire right now, and the main players of its new wave – Skepta, Stormzy, Wiley, Ghetts, JME and others – are fast becoming the most exciting names in global music outside of the fast-rising Korean jazz metal behemoths Covfefe. But what is it? Where did it come from? And what bizarre initiation processes does one need to undergo in order to become a ‘mandem’? Here’s our handy idiot’s guide to the biggest UK scene of 2017.

 

What is grime?

 

Emerging from the UK speed garage and jungle scenes of the late 1990s and early 2000s, grime was a more rapid-fire and electronic strain pioneered on East London pirate radio stations like Rinse FM by early adopters such as Danny Weed, Musical Mob and Wiley, the man considered the godfather of the scene (even though he initially dubbed the sound Eskibeat). Wiley’s influence was widespread, as he not only released pioneering early grime tunes such as ‘Eskimo’, ‘Ice Rink’ and ‘Igloo’ - clearly dreaming of taking this new style to the top of the world – but also nurtured like-minded rappers in his Roll Deep crew, which included the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Danny Weed and, later on, Skepta.

 

 

How did grime break out?

 

Rather than scrambling around in the underground for a decade, grime took just a few years to invade the mainstream. Dizzee Rascal’s debut album ‘Boy In Da Corner’ was hailed as the first grime masterpiece, winning the 2003 Mercury Music Prize and shunting Dizzee to the forefront of the scene. Kano, Wiley and Lethal Bizzle also received their fair share of acclaim but Dizzee soon became synonymous with grime, showered with awards and hitting the Top Ten with his follow-up albums ‘Showtime’ (2004) and ‘Maths + English’ (2007).

 

 

Why is there a grime resurgence now?

 

By the end of the ‘00s, Dizzee was hitting Number One in the UK with more electropop and dance leaning tracks like ‘Bonkers’ and ‘Dance Wiv Me’ and Wiley was starting to have major hits with ‘Wearing My Rolex’ and ‘Cash In My Pocket’. But the groundswell seemed to have stalled, with few other breakthrough acts in sight and the original buzz growing fainter and fainter.

 

Then, in 2009, a single called ‘Too Many Man’ lit up the grime club dancefloors with its tongue-twisting chorus about how the scene was turning into a massive sausage-fest. It marked the emergence of a blazing new squad called Boy Better Know, founded as a record label in 2005 by Jme and Skepta and now a crew including Skepta, JME, Wiley, Shorty, Jammer, Frisco and Solo 45, representing grime’s seething, underground second wave.

 

 

Over the course of the 2010s, this new swell gained momentum. In 2014 Meridian Dan’s ‘German Whip’ hit the Top Twenty and Skepta’s now-seminal ‘That’s Not Me’ was also a hit, throwing back to the origins of grime. Skepta’s star ascended from there, until his 2016 fourth album ‘Konnichiwa’ was greeted as a latter era grime benchmark, snagging the 2016 Mercury Prize and boasting genre-reviving hits in ‘Shutdown’ and ‘Man (Gang)’ – a track boasting the deathless couplet “my mum don’t know your mum, stop telling man you’re my cousin”.

 

 

At the same time, Kano’s ‘Made In The Manor’ album was garnering rave reviews and, amidst a flurry of new artists emerging, one South London superstar by the name of Stormzy stood out thanks to, well, storming singles like ‘Shut Up’ and ‘Know Me From’ – “If grime’s dead then how am I here?” he asked on the latter, a major part of the scene’s resurrection. By 2017 his debut album ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ had become grime’s first Number One album, Skepta was collaborating with Drake, A$AP Mob and Earl Sweatshirt in the US and – pow! – grime was on its way to becoming a global phenomenon to rival mocking Donald Trump on Twitter.

 

 

Who are the stars of the second wave of grime?

 

Skepta

 

The Tottenham-based don of the grime revival, Skepta – aka Joseph Adenuga – has come from making extremely NSFW hardcore porn videos for his song ‘All Over The House’ in order to get some attention to being declared the lynchpin of the new grime wave and winner of NME’s Best Male.

 

 

Stormzy

 

Rocketing to the top of the UK album charts with his first album ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’, Stormzy is a veritable grime tornado.

 

 

Jme

 

Brother of Skepta, Jme (Jamie Adenuga) is emerging from his sibling’s formidable shadow thanks to three notable studio albums, some high-profile guest spots and a celebrated hook-up with Labour leader and (at time of writing) potential grime minister Jeremy Corbyn.

 

 

Wiley

 

Of the grime originators, Wiley has best retained his underground credibility, and his records have started to match his scene standing too – this year’s eleventh record ‘Godfather’ was his first UK Top Ten album.

 

 

AJ Tracey

 

Video game culture, football and brutal beats collide in the work of globe-trotting grime sensation AJ Tracey.

 

 

Stefflon Don

 

From London via Rotterdam, Stefflon Don is a champion of a style dubbed ‘bubbling’, a hyperspeed Dutch dancehall sound she’s brilliantly weaving into the bedrock of grime and UK rap. The British Nicki Minaj, anyone?

 

 

Lady Leshurr

 

Grime’s own Queen Bey, Lady Leshurr is making serious inroads into the US rap scene, working with Timbaland and sought after by Akon and Busta Rhymes thanks to many millions of views of her ‘Queen’s Speech’ freestyles.

 

 

Bugzy Malone

 

Proclaiming himself the ‘King Of The North’, Bugzy Malone is the main player in grime’s Manchester arm, making his name with a Top Ten hit in last year’s ‘Facing Time’ EP and a beef with Chip that played out like an AK47 duel.

 

 

Young Yizzy

 

The (relative) baby of the bunch, 17-year-old Young Yizzy is the self-styled ‘Grime Kid’ and the ambitious first blud of the next generation.

 

 

J Hus

 

Working Afrobeats and dancehall reggae into the grime mix, Stratford jailbird J Hus is already crashing into the mainstream – his breakthrough single ‘Did You See’ made Number 12 in the UK.

 

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New Music Of The Day: Animal Husbandry – ‘In Trouble For Good’

Taylor Swift faces jury trial in DJ assault case

 

Taylor Swift is to take part in a jury trial after claiming former KYGO radio host David Mueller groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet.

David Mueller has been accused of lifting up Swift’s skirt and groping her at a Colorado meet-and-greet in June 2013, an allegation that saw him lose his job as a DJ at the Denver country music radio station 98.5 KYGO. Mueller initially sued Swift for what he described as her “false” allegations, a move that was soon met by a counter-suit from Swift for sexual assault and battery in October 2015. In her deposition, Swift described feeling “frantic, distressed and violated” by the alleged incident.

Mueller denies the assault claim and contends that he lost his job for no good reason.

Both versions of the story will be heard at a jury trail, set to take place on August 7. The trail itself will run for nine days, with the law requiring the Court to ‘treat Mueller’s version of the facts as true at this stage of litigation’.

“Having reviewed these evidentiary materials, the Court finds that the central and genuine dispute remains,” U.S. District Court judge William Martinez writes in this document.

“Certain witnesses’ testimony tends to corroborate Swift’s version of events, and Mueller points to other evidence that he argues shows inconsistencies in Swift’s story. None of this changes the reality that if a jury accepts Mueller’s version of the facts, then it must substantially reject Swift’s version and vice versa. In ruling on summary judgment, it is not the Court’s role to resolve this dispute.”

It was reported last month that Taylor Swift has called on a University professor and gender studies teacher as an expert witness in the upcoming trial.

Swift has commissioned Lorraine Bayard de Volo – who teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder – to analyze whether Mueller’s “behavior is consistent with perpetrators of sexual assault”.

In her report, de Volo argues that Mueller’s “masculine status” had been challenged due to being treated as a fan at the meet-and-greet rather than as a VIP. “This perfect storm of threats to Mr. Mueller’s perceived status is consistent with the well-settled, academically-accepted, perceived threats to status that motivate a man to commit sexual harassment or assault,” de Volo adds.

Mueller’s attorney Gabriel McFarland has filed a motion to exclude de Volo’s testimony, saying: “She has never before served as an expert witness, and apparently has no training in psychology. Nonetheless, according to Ms Bayard de Volo’s written report, she intends to opine that Mr Mueller had the profile of a person likely to sexually assault women.”

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Kesha recorded two new songs with Eagles Of Death Metal

James Corden reveals when Ed Sheeran’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ will air and shares teaser

Tickets to see Beyoncé at Coachella go on sale this week

 

Tickets for next year’s Coachella festival, which features a headline set from Beyonce, are about to go on sale.

The pop superstar had been due to headline this year’s Coachella, but pulled out on doctor’s orders after she became pregnant. She was later replaced by Lady Gaga.

Next year’s festival will take place on much the same weekends as this year’s events. Weekend one runs from April 13-15, 2018, with weekend two running from April 20-22, 2018. Tickets go on sale from the website tomorrow (June 2) at 2pm EST in the US, and 7pm BST in the UK.

Meanwhile, Beyoncé has recently announced plans to offer scholarships to four young women studying creative arts, music, literature, or African-American studies. The scholarships are designed to “encourage and support young women who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious and confident,” the singer said in a statement on her website. They will be available for the 2017-18 academic year. Eligible students can apply through the colleges’ respective websites.

She also voiced her support for the global Women’s March, which counts her Chime for Change campaign as a partner. The singer wrote at the time: “Together with Chime for Change, we raise our voices as mothers, as artists, and as activists. As #GlobalCitizens, we can make our voices heard and turn awareness into meaningful action and positive change. #WomensMarch.”

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Foo Fighters release surprise new single and video ‘Run’

 

Foo Fighters have returned with a new single ‘Run’, releasing an epic video directed by frontman Dave Grohl.

‘Run’ sees the band dressed as elderly men, playing to a crowd of old people in a church.

It follows the release of ‘The Sky Is A Neighbourhood’ – another new track from their forthcoming album. You can watch the video for ‘Run’ below.

While Grohl has also recently been promoting his mother Virginia’s new book, the Foos are believed to be spending most of 2017 recording their new album.

The US band released eighth LP ‘Sonic Highways’ in 2014, following it up with two EPs, Songs from the Laundry Room and Saint Cecilia, a year later.

• Read more: Foo Fighters: Everything we know about the new album

Last year, drummer Taylor Hawkins told NME: “We will make a new record at some point. We won’t really be ready until Dave’s ready to go. It’s on the books, so we’ll definitely be playing. We never really know, we just wait for a text from Dave saying ‘hey, let’s go down to the studio.”

Foo Fighters will also be headlining Glastonbury 2017 alongside Radiohead and Ed Sheeran – with Royal Blood, Haim, The National, Katy Perry, The xx, Boy Better Know, Stormzy and more also set to perform.

The group will play a handful of festival dates in North America and Europe this summer. See the full dates below:

Secret Solstice, Rejkavik, Iceland (June 16)

Rock The Beach, Helsinki, Finland (19)

Lucasvala Island, Latvia (21)

Glastonbury Festival, England (24)

Open’er Festival, Poland (29)

Roskilde Festival, Denmark (30)

Mad Cool Festival, Madrid, Spain (Jul 6)

Nos Alive Festival (7)

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The Orville Vs Star Trek Discovery - The Battle Of The Sci-Fi Shows This Fall

We've got two new space-based shows to look forward to this Fall. A new Star Trek in Star Trek Discovery and The Orville which is somewhere between a parody of Star Trek and Futurama - although the creator Seth MacFarlane has said it is more serious than the trailer makes it look. Which brings us to the first round.

Star Trek Discovery Vs The Orville: Which show has the best trailer?

Star Trek Discovery

The Orville

Who wins the first round? The Orville is solid fun all the way through, we get to meet a load of different crew members and even a hint of the plot for the pilot episode.

Star Trek Discovery doesn’t have the same energy - even if it ends on a strong note with the original theme and a Starfleet symbol. This is a slightly darker Star Trek, with of course lots of lense flare. Everyone is speaking in bold philosophical statements rather than things real people say - although it’s not as bad as the film Prometheus.

We’re going to give this round to The Orville, just.

Star Trek Discovery Vs The Orville: Who has the best Captain?

The main character of Star Trek discovery is first officer Michael Burnham (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) not the captain. Instead Michelle Yeoh is taking up that role as Captain Philippa Georgiou. We don’t know much about her yet, but she seems to be on the Picard end of the scale of ship’s captains rather than Kirk. On the Orville the captain is Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) he, well he’s not had the best run of luck recently.

This round goes to Star Trek Discovery.

Star Trek Discovery Vs The Orville: Who has the best uniforms?

Two part uniforms are the order of days in the future. The crew of The Orville wear black with block colour panels to signify their role on the ship. The panels are cut to make them more slimming - handy if you’ve had a lot space burgers.

The Star Trek Discovery uniforms are also two-parters with panels but with blue as a base colour and metallic panels which also extended onto the pants.

We asked the fashion team at CelebsNow magazine which was best and they said Star Trek, ‘It's more sleek. Sports Lux is so hot right now. It's a trend for everyone and athleisure is everywhere on the catwalk this season.’

Star Trek Discovery Vs The Orville: Which has the best ships?

The Orville is a sleek looking exploration ship, fresh out of the ship-yards. It’s very fast and maneuverable - we see it dodge and weave past a few other ships in the trailer. It’s not the biggest ship in the fleet but it seems pretty flash.

We don’t know much about the ship in Star Trek Discovery. We’ve been told the series will follow the USS Discovery but the captain (Philippa Georgiou) is listed as the captain of the USS Shenzhou. There are a few fan theories about why this is and we won’t know for certain until the Fall when the series premieres. This round has to go to The Orville for now.

So with two points each we’re going to call this a draw, but it could change as we find out more.

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The Dark Tower: Release date, plot, cast, trailers, spoilers and more

If Lord Of The Rings was a really scary western it would be The Dark Tower, Stephen King’s epic series of fantasy novel that follows a hero called Roland Deschain, aka The Gunslinger, on a quest towards the titular Dark Tower, where all of time and space collides. Hopping between the Wild West-style Mid-World and modern day New York, it’s a sprawling masterwork of monsters, psychopaths and dark sorcery that is somehow being condensed into a film and TV franchise, with the first instalment arriving in August. Here’s everything you need to know about Stephen King’s very own Discworld movie and the 2017 sci-fi blockbuster to rival Blade Runner 2049.

 

 

 

When is The Dark Tower’s release date?

 

The Dark Tower hits screens on August 4 in both 3D and 2D. It’s projected to launch a TV franchise, which is pencilled in to launch in 2018.

 

Who’s in The Dark Tower cast?

 

Idris Elba is taking on the central role of The Gunslinger, leading his ka-tet (a group of accomplices drawn together by ‘ka’, a life-force controlling their fates) across Mid-World in constant battle with The Man In Black, aka Walter Padick, a sorcerer headed to the Dark Tower in order to control all of the kingdoms it contains, like some kind of Large Hadron Collider experiment gone very wrong indeed. In the novels Padick is a faceless figure, but lovers of the swarthier beefcake will be pleased to hear that Matthew McConaughey is playing the part. The unknown Tom Taylor won an international search to find an actor to play Elba’s young boy companion Jake while Bones’ Katheryn Winnick, latter-day Freddie Kruger Jackie Earl Haley and The Neon Demon’s heartless cannibal Abbey Lee Kershaw take pivotal supporting roles.

 

What’s the plot of The Dark Tower?

 

The Dark Tower is an odd one to step around – as anyone who has finished reading the novels will know, the very premise itself is at serious risk of being the ultimate series-ruining spoiler. So let’s just say that although it’s a sequel to the novels, it takes plot elements from throughout the series, tracing the story of Jack as he’s drawn out of modern day New York into Mid-World and meets The Gunslinger making his way to the Tower in an attempt to stop it being destroyed and thus save every level of existence from the creeping threat of Hell. So it’s kind of a fresh story in the series, promising something new for fans of the books and people who couldn’t tell their Horn Of Eld from their elbow.

 

The Dark Tower is close, now. The Crimson King awaits. Soon Roland will raise the Horn of Eld. And blow. http://pic.twitter.com/rqGSKM3dWL

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 19, 2016

 

 

The Dark Tower: the trailers

 

After a series of teaser snippets featuring shots of doors opening onto blasted wastelands and Idris loading his gun with falling bullets – take that, Clint – the official trailer emerged in early May promising a Vue-quaking epic. Between shots of Elba blasting away at monsters with a pair of steaming revolvers and McConaughey drifting wickedly through mist like someone who's only narrlowly escaped being in the King Arthur movie, we see Jake explaining his strange visions of an alternate world to a psychiatrist before actually ending up there and falling in with The Gunslinger. “The tower protects both our worlds,” Idris tells him in a handy plot summary, “if it falls, hell will be unleashed.” Then, amid footage of the tower making a very good impression of falling, Idris heads back into our world, which is on the verge of destruction as if we have somehow invoked the wrath of the great god Covfefe. Check it out below.

 

 

 

Who is directing The Dark Tower?

 

As is the way of the long-gestating blockbuster, several major names have helmed The Dark Tower at various stages. In 2007, JJ Abrams licensed the novels for the grand total of nineteen dollars, but after three years of development considered himself too much of a Stephen King fanboy to do the franchise justice. He's now focussing on a number of 2017 blockbuster releases such as Cloverfield 2017 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In 2010 Ron Howard took it on, envisioning three films linked with six-part TV series, but funding issues for such a mammoth project arose and Howard canned the idea around 2014. Finally, Nikolaj Arcel, director of 2012’s A Royal Affair, took the film on as it was fast-tracked by Sony and filming finally began last April. Frankly, in all that time, you could’ve walked to the Dark Tower and back. Twice.

 

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