I have already done a review on the Croydon rapper’s debut album, “Gang Signs & Prayer”, back in 2017, so I will keep my introduction of Michael Omari short and sweet as I have no reason to do a biography of him for that reason alone. I had a plethora of vinyls and downloaded CDs of Grime, so I do have some knowledge of the scene despite drifting of late. I also don’t know how I first got listening to Stormzy; as for me, he seems to appear without fanfare, but now he has really started to accelerate in his career and is fast becoming a household name across Europe. So, I have been eagerly awaiting for the second album. One thing that struck me upon the release of “Heavy is the Head” is that Stormzy showed his unconditional support of out-going Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his disdain for current Prime Minister Alexander Johnson, who won by a landslide in the general election last month (In all honesty, I knew the Conservative party would win as politics is a rigged deck, anyway. I don’t believe there is such a thing as democracy in the Western world. It’s all bollocks. I also trust none of the parties nor their politicians.). Where am I going with this? Stormzy has a bar in the lead single “Vossi Bop”, where he attacks the government and the Prime Minister. Kind of like the London 2Pac. I fucking love that attitude. Fuck the establishment and let them know about it.
Like on his debut record, we have the hardened streetwise soldier and the caring lover as he goes from dark beats to slow jam-esque vibes. Although I like “Crown”, I don’t feel that Stormzy has the soulful vocals to do the chorus justice, but fair play to him for even attempting to sing in that manner, anyway. Though, he should leave that to the likes of Romeo, Kano, Devlin, Ed Sheeran and Mighty Moe. The verses though on “Crown” is where he excels and listen carefully to what he has to say in this autobiographical masterpiece.
I will now focus on “Superheroes” as this track is a huge big up to all the leading female figures often overlooked by their male counterparts. He references the Williams sisters, relatively new rapper Little Simz (I say reasonably new because she has been around for a while), and finally, the children’s author Malorie Blackman. It’s refreshing to see a male paying homage to leading female figures in their field, as we are usually guilty of referencing leading figures of our own gender. Also, if you were a fan of the children’s BBC show, the Story of Tracey Beaker, you would love this as the theme song lyrics are sung in the chorus.
Of course, as is the case with most albums, some tracks somehow make it onto the final listing, which really shouldn’t be there. This time however, I am not talking about those fucking skits or short instrumental jams, but just pure cheesy tracks like “Don’t Forget to Breathe”, which features Adele’s co-writer Paul Epworth on the writing credits and the track “Own It” featuring Ed Sheeran, which has a very corny verse by Ed that sounds like a man failing miserably at impressing a female. I loved the raw emotion in “Lessons”, and although “Do Better” is a very good song, Big Mike tries his hand at singing again and, yes, fair play to him for that, but he excels at barring and should stick to that.
When this record was released, I admittedly was catching up on a shit load of reviews I should have done a long time ago, so I initially missed out on the opportunity to review it. Anyway, I noticed a track called “Wiley Flow”. Now, at the time, all was well and good on this front, so I would have just seen it as a hang-tight to one of Grime’s pioneers (He was in Pay As U Go Cartel who started playing it on Rinse FM and significant events like Sidewinder when Grime wasn’t even labelled yet. It was just purely Underground.). Still, recently the two have been exchanging words over what are known as war dubs. Stormzy’s two dubs so far have been “Still Disappointed” and “Still Disappointed II”, where rather than praise Wiley, he has proceeded to take him apart piece by piece (I recommend giving them a listen.), but that’s for another review for someone else to take care of, I am focusing on Stormzy’s latest record, not the war dubs. So, yeah, he speaks highly of Wiley on the track. Have you noticed that I haven’t done these tracks in order of listening? And to fuck your head up even more, I will close the review with my standout track that features earlier on the album “Rachael’s Little Brother”. I love the bars on this one, as he shows his humbleness and sense of humour. Now, he mentions all the things he could have been besides a musician, and they are more than likely true. Big Mike is no fucking thicko. He got outstanding grades for his GCSEs, including SIX A*’s and THREE A’s. It shows that not all rappers fail academically. It’s weird because most are incredibly bright, like Big Mike, but tend to avoid school. By His admission, he used to misbehave for his entertainment but seemed to excel when it came to exams. He only achieved moderate grades on his A Levels before doing an apprenticeship in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and then working for two years at an oil refinery as quality assurance in Southampton, Hampshire (Both quite far away from his South East London home.) Check out these bars mentioned in the track; they are humble, witty, full of humour and brilliant. That’s another thing with Grime. A lot of wordplay is used to terrific effect.
I coulda been a doctor, coulda been a lawyer
coulda been a boxer like I’m Oscar de la Hoya
If I stayed at work I’d probably piss off my employer
8/10
Honest Opinions 