Hip-hop has a soft spot for statistics. On Audacity, a track full of pique at the impertinence of his critics, the rapper Stormzy lists the capacity of the venues he played on the tour for his debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, as evidence of his supremacy in UK grime. “5,000 capacity,” it goes, “spread that over the UK and then add it up and get back to me.”
Except this time around, that figure has doubled to “10,000 capacity” – an edit to the lyrics met by one of the many roars of recognition of the night from an adoring crowd. Delayed for two years, Stormzy’s tour for his second album, Heavy Is the Head, will now play to more than 175,000 people in the UK. With so many certainties upended in the past two years, it is heartening to see the south London artist remains an adored cultural figurehead, one whose lyrical power is matched by the breadth and depth of his offering.
