The last time Stormzy performed live in the UK was early last year, playing arena shows seemingly designed to underline that you were in the presence of Britain’s biggest rapper. There were vast quantities of pyrotechnics, endless flashy lighting effects and a stage set with a giant rendering of the scales of justice. The whole thing was preceded by a lengthy video, trailing his forthcoming third album as if it was a blockbuster film, the first salvo in a campaign that took it as read that This Is What I Mean was going to be one of 2022’s biggest albums.
A year and a half on, things feel different. This Is What I Mean was an artistic triumph, but it didn’t sell anything like the kind of quantities its predecessors did: a week at No 1 then out of the Top 10 entirely, never to return. Stormzy is clearly still a very big deal – his solitary UK gig of 2023 involves taking over an entire day of the All Points East festival, curating a bill that includes sometime collaborators Sampha and Knucks alongside Kehlani and Ms Banks – but as his headline set begins, the contrast with his last tour is almost jarring. Flashy lighting and special effects are nowhere to be seen. Everything and indeed everyone – a live band, eight backing vocalists – is swathed in muted, tasteful shades of brown and beige: it’s like a Farrow & Ball catalogue. The set is heavy on lovelorn, subtle songs from This Is What I Mean, interspersed with dips into the slow-motion end of his back catalogue: Cigarettes & Cush, Crown. It feels as if you are getting more of Stormzy the singer than Stormzy the rapper for your money.
