Having done what the rest of us wish we could and deleted all of his social media accounts late last year, Stormzy has gone old school and shared cryptic news of album release dates on billboards across London. Alongside his #MERKY logo, posters feature what look to be lyrics from new tunes next to #GSAP and the date 24.02.
“Ain’t dropped nothing for a minute, I’m fine,” says one. “You’re getting way too big for your boots,” shares another. With Stormzy’s debut album due to drop some time this year, we’re hoping this means what we think it means. As for what GSAP stands for, we’re not entirely sure, but if Google is to be trusted, he’s about to name his album after a suite of JavaScript tools used for high-performance animation.
In conversation with Hattie Collins for his i-D cover interview, the south London MC told us that he can’t wait to get the record out, comparing it to seminal works by his favourite artists. “I want to give the world a body of work that is Stormzy… in the same way you look at Illmatic and say that’s Nas or Boy in da Corner and that was Dizzee, an aggy little shit with a bone to pick. So for me, you will hear Stormzy the son, the boyfriend, the brother, the bredrin, all of it. I will give you a moment in time in music.”
Read: Man of the moment, man of the people. Meet Stormzy, i-D’s first grime cover star
Credits
Text Frankie Dunn
Lead image photography Oliver Hadlee Pearch and styling Max Clark