Stormzy announces new album 'This Is What I Mean'

The reigning king of UK grime, Croydon's very own Stormzy has surprised us all with the announcement of his third studio album, This Is What I Mean. The 12-track record, his first since 2019’s Heavy Is the Head, was, according to a press release, written during a song-writing retreat out on the enchanting Osea Island, off the South East coast of England. 

Speaking of his experience on the private island, the 29-year-old rap star said:

"When you hear about music camps, they always sound intense and sombre. People saying, “We need to make an album.” “We need to make some hit records.” But this felt beautifully free.

"We’re all musicians, but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the byproduct of that was very beautiful music. 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."

Details of the new album followed on from the release of his latest single, 'Mel Made Me Do It'. The music video for the 7-minute heartfelt anthem saw cameo's from a collection of 50 well-known faces, the likes of Little Simz, Dave, Gabrielle, JME and Headie One, as well as author Malorie Blackman, Trevor Nelson, and the family of the late Jamal Edwards, founder of SB.TV. 

Watch the video for 'Mel Made Me Do It' below...

The tracklisting for This Is What I Mean is as follows:

1. Fire + Water

2. This Is What I Mean

3. FireBabe

4. Please

5. Need You

6. Hide & Seek

7. My Presidents Are Black

8. Sampha’s Plea

9. Holy Spirit

10. Bad Blood

11. I Got My Smile Back

12. Give It to the Water

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Header image credit: Stormzy / Facebook.com