Stormzy Writes Open Letter To Fans
Stormzy has shared a handwritten note on social media late to mark the release of his new album, This Is What I Mean.
“I feel like I overshare, which makes me feel naked at times,” Stormzy admitted in the extended note. “But I do it so that you guys can understand me a bit better and to give the art that I make some context.”
“People been tryna to box me in for years but I hope this chapter at least makes my biggest critic say, ‘Hey, he’s s*** but he loves music and I guess he’s gonna do whatever he likes.’ Lol. [sic]”
Stormzy went on: “I pray you listen to this album with an open heart and if you hate it after I promise to God I’m perfectly fine with that, I’m just grateful you listened with openness…. I pray that it moves you and captures your imagination and I pray that someone, somewhere feels it.”
Stormzy recently said that having at least one person “feel” his music is an achievement.
He shared: “I’ve never been this excited for new music. I’ve never felt so proud and confident in the art I’ve made.
“And the beautiful thing about it is that it’s … all my confidence and all my pride comes from the art. It doesn’t come from who people may think I am or what I’ve achieved – it’s none of that. It’s just a, ‘Yo, we’ve made something really beautiful, really special’. Something that people will feel, you know what I mean?
“When people ask me what I want to achieve, I’m just like, ‘I want people to feel it’. Whether it’s one person, whether it’s 20 million people, whether it’s 200 – I don’t mind. Just, I want someone to feel it, and I have a lot of confidence in that when people hear this, they’ll feel it.”
“I keep calling it a soul album. I don’t call it a soul album in the sense like Aretha Franklin or like a genre. It’s just something that came from my soul, which sounds really cheesy, but that’s the only way I can describe it.
“People say is it a rap album, is it a grime album, is it a gospel album. I’m like, ‘Yo, it’s just feelings that came out from my soul’. Yeah, we’ve just made something that I hope touches someone else’s soul, do you know what I mean?”
This Is What I Mean is available to order now.