Have faith – Stormzy is a better role model than you might think
At any given time, it is important for there to be a cultural figure, normally a musician, over whom we can all have a moral panic. This figure usually exists as a sort of fall guy – or girl – for society’s ills; their explicit, rabble-rousing music responsible for all that is wrong in life and a sign that the world is going to hell in a handcart.
Cast your mind back to your own youth, and there will doubtless have been some outcry over a band you enjoyed that, in hindsight, did absolutely no harm at all: Elvis Presley; the Rolling Stones; even jazz music was once seen as the work of the Devil. When I was a kid, we saved our pocket money to buy hip-hop records that advocated smoking weed and being disrespectful to the police, and we turned out OK. Eventually.
I mention this because I have become almost unhealthily obsessed – in a good way, I promise – with the man who has held this position for the last couple of years.
Stormzy, or Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr as he was christened when he was born some 26 years ago in south London, is a grime artist who gets the Government’s back up: when, at the 2018 Brit Awards, he asked Theresa May where the money for Grenfell was, her spokesman released a statement explaining that the then prime minister had been “very clear that Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy that … must never happen again”.
During last year’s election, when Stormzy announced to his millions of followers on social media that they should register to vote and that he would be supporting the Labour Party, Michael Gove felt the need to declare that the artist was “a far better rapper than political analyst”. Stormzy stormed back, explaining that, as a young black man, he was used to being told to stay in his lane by people in positions of power. Gove should probably have been less sniffy – the day after the rapper sent out his message, voter registration spiked by 236 per cent.
Weeks later, Stormzy was asked in an interview with La Repubblica, the Italian paper, if he believed Britain was still racist. Stormzy, whom I trust knows more about this than
I do, given that I am a white woman, replied: “Definitely, 100 per cent,” even if much of that racism was “hidden”. This upset many people, who clearly felt this was a personal attack, rather than an honest response by a black British man about his experiences of systemic racism. And there was a fair amount of uproar when it was announced that he would be reading a passage from the Bible on BBC One on Christmas Day. The gist was: why is the Beeb giving a platform to this man who seems to believe the country is racist?
It was then that this white mother approaching 40 first wanted to write in defence of Stormzy. Because I couldn’t think of a better man for the job, given that he is a Godfearing Christian who has done more for faith in this country than every episode of Songs of Praise combined. As the historian Tom Holland wrote on Twitter at the time: “Stormzy has spoken of the workings of grace with a rare power, [and] has the kind of prophetic voice that has been reproving the powerful throughout the Christian history of this country.” You only have to listen to Blinded By Your Grace – as the Archbishop of Canterbury is said to do – to know that this is a man who would not exist as he currently does without the guidance of God. “Lord, I’ve been broken/ although I’m not worthy/ you fixed me/ now I’m blinded by your grace/ you came and saved me.”
This week, he appeared on the cover of GQ, to accompany an interview that I would urge any sceptics to read in order to get the full measure of the man. He speaks about sobbing like a boy after he headlined Glastonbury last year in that Union flagemblazoned stab-proof vest, and of being expelled from school and saved by an engineering apprenticeship he undertook in Leamington Spa. He has his own imprint at Penguin, which has a remit to produce books by diverse young writers, and he funds the fees of two black students at Cambridge each year.
There are a lot of awful role models. But Stormzy, who takes his sober message of faith and sells out arenas full of young atheists, is not one of them. The fact he is one of the biggest recording artists to come out of the UK in recent years should be a matter of great pride for all of us. We should be listening to him, not dismissing him. Who knows, you might even like what you hear.