Stormzy Releases First Single “Hide & Seek” Off New Album

‘THIS IS WHAT I MEAN’ – SET FOR GLOBAL RELEASE ON NOVEMBER 25TH – AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW – HERE

Further to announcing his highly anticipated third album, This Is What I Mean, Stormzy has released ‘Hide & Seek’ the first official single taken from the album which is set for global release on November 25th via 0207 Def Jam/Interscope Records.

Produced by PRGRSHN and P2J, “Hide & Seek‘ feature” additional vocals from British singer Äyanna and Nigerian singers Oxlade (currently making waves after his viral hit ‘KU LO SA‘,) and Teni, providing an emotive, soulful and ethereal offering.

Arriving alongside a beautiful visual directed by Meji Alabi, the video features British actress Saffron Hocking (best known for playing Lauren in the Netflix show, Top Boy) and depicts Stormzy and Saffron as a couple in love; illustrating purity and the journey a young relationship often takes.

On the release of his third album, Stormzy stands not only as one of Britain’s most accomplished rappers, but one of its most accomplished musicians of any genre and a cultural icon. Through his new record, he’s delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between urgent modern treatise, soul and hip-hop.

A bold, brave and courageous leap forward from his critically acclaimed previous two #1 records, ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ and ‘Heavy Is The Head’, this isn’t music simply for the pop charts but rather, an intimate love letter to music and one that showcases intensely personal and lyrical themes which lay bare the vulnerabilities, regret, frailties, healing, joy and triumph in a manner and to an extent that reframes the notion of what rap artists traditionally might do and be.

The confidence which drove the album stemmed from a deeper and far more spiritual place than we have seen from Stormzy previously. For all the success and awards that he has accrued during his brief, meteoric career, the lockdown that ensued from the coronavirus pandemic gave him one commodity he’d long lacked: time. And thanks to his sense of accomplishment following Glastonbury he was, for the first time, in a position to make the most of it.

Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from a Stormzy music camp in Osea Island – a remote island in the Essex estuary that’s only accessible via a Roman Causeway for four hours a day at low tide. Surrounded by leading-edge producers and musicians (who will all be unveiled in due course), each and every morning they would eat and pray together and then spend the rest of the time driven to creative heights by each other’s talents. “When you hear about music camps they always sound intense and sombre,” says Stormzy. ““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 bi-product to 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.”

The net result is that while This Is What I Mean sounds very much like Stormzy, it sounds like no Stormzy album you have ever heard before.