“Tonight’s my f***ing night,” Stormzy proclaims to a packed-out O2 arena on Sunday evening. He isn’t wrong. The south London rapper has been headlining festivals and selling out shows for so long, it’s hard to believe tonight is his first time playing the London arena. “I’m home,” he grins to an audience already on their feet. After all, it’s their night too. The majority of the 20,000 people in the stands purchased their tickets over two years ago. Delayed for two years, Stormzy’s tour for his second album, Heavy Is the Head, is finally underway.
That record won over any doubters who remained after his rapturously received debut, 2017’s Gang Signs & Prayer. It showed a rapper equally at ease with doling out brutal eviscerations of the government as he is cheeky ripostes to critics, both big (fellow grime star Wiley) and small (an Instagram user whose angry voicenote demanding Stormzy “release some f***ing music, d***head” opens the entire album). Stormzy’s 2019 incendiary Glastonbury set cemented his reputation as a household name. And if there were any concern that time lapsed between then and now would’ve dulled the hype, it is instantly drowned out by the screams that meet Stormzy’s arrival as he descends onto the stage with an explosive triptych of fan favourites: two off his latest record (“Big Michael” and “Audacity”), plus an oldie (2015’s “Know Me From”).
Big-tent hip-hop concerts have become routine, and this is no different. Rapid-fire strobes, confetti cannons and a kinetic stage are only the tip of this creative iceberg, chiselled by the same art direction team behind Stormzy’s Glastonbury performance, and Beyoncé’s Coachella headlining set. But what stands out tonight are not the frequent roars of fire felt all the way up in the nosebleed section, but the fact Stormzy still pulls focus amid all that. At 6ft 5in, he is a towering presence. But the rapper radiates a charisma and command that physical attributes can’t explain away. He prowls the stage with conviction, oscillating between bombastic bouncing for his rambunctious numbers and monastic stillness in his quieter moments.
The show’s mid-section (comprising the rapper’s more subdued side with tracks including “Crown” and “Heavy Is the Head”) is an indisputable display of Stormzy’s versatility. But it’s the rowdiest songs that have his fans most charged up. His performance of the Wiley diss track “Wiley Flow” is a barrage of jabs and uppercuts that the audience can match blow-by-blow, word-for-word. The lyric video running in the background of tonight’s show is wasted on fans like these. It’s hard to imagine a crowd more gassed than this until Dave arrives on stage to join in a surprise performance of big-hitter “Clash”. It’s suddenly clear there is a whole lot of energy left in the tank.
“Gratitude” is a mantra Stormzy repeats tonight – whether it’s to his fans or to God. Or to his mum, whom he shouts out in a special Mother’s Day performance of 2019’s “100 Bags”. And it’s true that while the grime behemoth has been riding his peak for some time now, he still retains some of that Croydon boy wonder about him. In the rare moment that Stormzy must visibly catch his breath between spitting verses, the screens show a rapper incredulous at where he is. And one that hasn’t forgotten who got him there. At one chance moment, he catches a hat thrown at him by a fan in the crowd. He puts it on without missing a beat, performing the rest of “Too Big For Your Boots” with a stranger’s sweaty old Kangol cap on his head. Stormzy: a rapper of the people.
