Stormzy credits Africa for revolutionising black music as he looks ahead to his ‘fearless’ thirties

One BBC Award, two BET Awards, three BRIT Awards and of course the coveted Ivor Novello take pride of place among the numerous accolades he’s won since emerging from the British grime scene less than a decade ago. 

But as Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr, the man most know as Stormzy, prepares for his milestone 30th birthday this July he insists the best – both musically and spiritually – is yet to come. 

Indeed, the London-based rapper is back in the studio as he begins work on a fourth album, just six months after releasing his third – the critically acclaimed and commercially successful This Is What I Mean. 

And he believes the confidence and self-assurance that comes with growing older is having a positive impact on his art at a time when black music is at something of a commercial peak. 

He told the Summer 2023 edition of DAZED: There’s a difference in doing this on your first album at 22 and your fourth when you’re about to turn 30. 

Back at it: Indeed, the London-based rapper is back in the studio as he begins work on a fourth album, just six months after releasing his third

‘It’s the kind of peace and stability and stillness you can only get from maturity. You lose all the nervous shivers and the anxiety; you shake it off because now you’re a grown man coming into your skin.’ 

The rapper acknowledges his rise to prominence comes during a moment of cultural transition, with once marginalised African music infiltrating the mainstream, filling American and European dancefloors and influencing artists of all ethnicities. 

‘People are just being unapologetic in their blackness and it’s the greatest music on Earth right now,’ he said. ‘The greatest music on Earth is coming out of Africa. Even that is just inspiring: be your black self. And look! It’s got the world on fire. 

‘I’ll tell my kids I was a part of this time in culture. I had an offering. I was here; I was a part of it.’ 

The rapper will celebrate his 30th birthday on July 26, and he says he’s ready to embrace an even more eventful fresh chapter. 

‘I think now even creatively nothing has changed,’ he said. ‘I think maybe now I’m even bolder, and I’m even braver, and I’m even more fearless. But I’ve always been that… I’m all those things but with maturity.

“All I know is that the next chapter for me includes music, but other than that? I don’t know. It’s the most beautiful “I don’t know”… there’s no confusion in where I should be and who I should be. 

‘It’s like “God, I’m ready to do the work here on Earth, you just guide it.”‘

The full interview is available to read in the latest edition of DAZED, out now. 

Turning point: Stormzy will celebrate his 30th birthday on July 26, and he says he’s ready to embrace a brand new chapter

Moment in time: He believes the confidence and self-assurance that comes with growing older is having a positive impact on his art at a time when black music is at a commercial peak

Loving for the moment: ‘I’ll tell my kids I was a part of this time in culture. I had an offering. I was here; I was a part of it,’ he told Dazed magazine 

Read all about it: The full interview is available to read in the latest edition of DAZED, out now