After a long day, I returned home to find out that Stormzy had dropped a video called 'Mel Made Me Do It.
I saw that the length of the video was 10 minutes, I had to double/triple check to see if that definitely was the case because we live in a time where 2 - 3 minute songs have become the norm. Now I was super interested, because one of our biggest artists had gone against the grain. This is needed in music because short songs, in my opinion, massively dilute the lyrical content, in my opinion, because there isn't a lot of time to expand on the point being made (granted there are some songs that don't need that).
Stormzy was spraying bars all throughout this song, to answer critics about him not being a spitter. People forget that when Stormzy was on the come up appeared on numerous freestyle platforms. I'm glad he brought this with him to show on the mainstage. This is important, Stormzy told the world that raw spitting still matters in rap.
"Getting told I'm not a real spitter by some broke a** spill splitter" Stormzy, Mel Made Me Do It
Stormzy was being unapologetically black and wealthy throughout this video. He put Zeze Millz next to Jonathon Ross, showing the country that Zeze deserves to be put in the same conversation as all the other big-time presenters. These subtle messages were brilliant, there was a time when being black and being yourself on TV felt foreign.
He had black people controlling stereotypically "White upper class" spaces, like vintage mansions, with black staff, and big black families, essentially dispelling the myth that black people only worship jewellery and trainers. Changing the narrative. The African saying 'a village raises a child' rang true in the scene where his WHOLE family looked at him crazy for making a overly sexual lyric. That's culture.
He bragged about bumping into Prince William in the gym, a small indication of the high level circles that he is moving in.
The most powerful scene is where he gathered a selection of black people with influence in the UK from Julie Adenuga, to Ian Wright, and made them stand together whilst a powerful monologue from Michaela Coel floated in the atmosphere. The speech spoke about the culture coming together and being great. This blog doesn't do the speech justice because as a black person it left me feeling super inspired and ready for today and tomorrow.
"This isn't a phase, this is phase 1" Michaela Coel, Mel Made Me Do It
Growing up, I would have loved to see a video like this, it is super important for the younger generation to see and digest this. Seeing black people be wealthy and classy, but still rooted in their culture, is massively important. For so long it seemed like we had to dilute ourselves to get to this level. This piece of art proves otherwise.
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