Next month, Stormzy will turn 30. July 26, this chapter will close, and out on the horizon, a new one will open. Boy becomes man, the chaos of youth firming into the full blooms of adulthood. Time comes for everyone, the tide must roll in. And soon, he will be next.
Stormzy isn’t nervous about this passover. He has been ready for 30. He feels fresh. He feels healthy and he feels sharp. Last November he released his third album, This is What I Mean, a liberating record pulling on influences ranging from soul to rap, R&B to Afrobeats, the 12 songs teasing out his private, poignant reflections on a deepening faith, on broken relationships with fathers and ex-partners, on his mental health and more.
Today, he is sitting in a small, windowless recording room of a south London studio, reflecting on what has passed since then, and what is to come. “There’s a difference in doing this on your first album at 22 and your fourth when you’re about to turn 30,” he says. “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.”
A week after finishing This is What I Mean, Stormzy was back in the studio, recording new music. It was the first time he had completed the long, intense album process with his sanity, wellness and mental stability all in check. Usually, after finishing albums, he is plagued by a heaviness, feeling mentally drained and overwhelmed. But this time he felt light, crediting the shift to God.
And so, as 30 approaches, he What’s next for me?
