Sometimes, it’s difficult to explain to U.S. audiences just how big certain acts are overseas. For example, how do you explain to an average U.S. listener that a masterful writer like Santan Dave is as big as Kendrick Lamar in certain parts of the world? Fortunately, those days are changing. Whether it’s Wizkid and Burna Boy dominating summer playlists for two consecutive summers or Giggs getting a co-sign from Jay-Z for the whole world to hear, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore or deny for the average U.S. listener to deny the success of other artists within the diaspora. That’s a roundabout way of saying that when a star like Stormzy returns, it matters regardless of where you are on the globe.
Not long ago, Stormzy reintroduced himself in a grand manner. With a nearly 11-minute long “Mel Made Me Do It” video complete with contributions from Michaela Coel, Santan Dave and others, the U.K. native set the stage for his forthcoming album, This Is What I Mean. This week, he not only returned with the project’s release date, November 25, but he also revealed the album’s tracklist. Tonight, the journey continues as he unleashes his next single, “Hide & Seek.”
“Hide & Seek” is the product of Stormzy’s exclusive music camp at Osea Island. Consisting of musicians, photographers, etc., the collective removed itself from the pressures of the record industry and social media chatter to create the best art they could make. The
“We’re all musicians but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the bi-product to that was very beautiful music,” he said about his music camp,” Stormzy said about his music camp, per Mixtape Madness.
“Because when you marry that ethos with world-class musicians and the best producers, writers and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.”
Check out “Hide & Seek” below and be on the lookout for This Is What I Mean in November.
