After a three year hiatus, south London grime icon Stormzy has returned with his destructively incinerating new single “Mel Made Me Do It”.
At this point, the multi-Brit Award winner is certified not only as one of the leading men in grime but also as a multidimensional artist with a clear message in his art.
He expressed gratitude and devotion on his debut album Gang Signs & Prayer (2017) whilst follow-up Heavy Is The Head (2019) found him contemplating his success and casually roasting public figures such as Theresa May and Boris Johnson over their policies and response to the Grenfell Tower fire.
“Mel Made Me Do It” finds Stormzy at his most mature and confident.
The seven minute track opens up with a funny conversation between Stormzy and his mother Abigail Owuo as he jokes with her for not wanting to fly economy class before the simplistically enchanting beat drop.
Stormzy jumps on the track with maturity from the get go.
“Aight, tell me why oh why would I reply to him? I leave him hanging like Kyrie on the rim.“
His blatant refusal to engage in any sort of diss track trends demonstrates his clear cut focus on his art while establishing to the competition that he is quite simply above them.
The track also contains the familiar blend of Stormzy’s braggadocious intricacies with lines such as “Word to Lauryn, I will die on this Hill” and “I prefer not to speak like I’m José” at which point the song samples a 2014 José Mourinho post-match interview about unfair treatment from referees.
The Special One also makes a cameo in the track’s music video alongside a plethora of celebrities such as Usain Bolt, Louis Theroux and Dave.
All in all, this seven minute epic is full of Stormzy’s compelling wordplay and versatile flows as he demonstrates to everyone exactly what sort of artist he wishes to be.
The hype train for any future full-length project has never been higher.
He’s back and he knows exactly who he is.
Featured image credit: Drew de F Fawkes under CC BY 2.0 licence
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