Stormzy has shared a music video for ‘This Is What I Mean’ – the title monitor from his just-released third album – starring the likes of Amaarae, Black Sherif, Jacob Collier, Ms Banks and Storry.
The video opens with a clip of phone-shot footage from the group at Stormzy’s album launch celebration final week, earlier than switching to a scene of Collier miming the music’s grand piano intro from inside an empty, ominously lit warehouse. A title card informs us that the video was shot on the identical night time because the aforementioned launch celebration, leaping forwards and backwards between the celebration itself and comparable solo scenes from every of the featured artists.
Three of them – Ms Banks, Amaarae and Black Sherif – even have visitor spots on the music itself. While Collier doesn’t, he was one of many music’s co-writers, and seems elsewhere on the namesake album. As revealed earlier this month, a complete of 28 artists had been concerned in bringing ‘This Is What I Mean’ to life.
Have a take a look at the video beneath:
‘This Is What I Mean’ – the album – arrived final Friday (November 25) through Stormzy’s personal #Merky label, and featured the singles ‘Hide & Seek’ and ‘Firebabe’. It was launched alongside a private message from the rapper, during which he implored followers to “listen to this album with an open heart”.
Shortly earlier than he launched the album, Stormzy mentioned in an interview that he’d “made peace with the idea that no one may like it”. He needn’t have completed so: NME gave ‘This Is What I Mean’ a four-star evaluate, with Sam Moore writing that it sees the rapper “continue to lead the way” and “[let] his listeners in like never before”.
Among the numerous upcoming celebrations for ‘This Is What I Mean’ is Stormzy’s headlining look at subsequent yr’s All Points East competition. There, he’ll curate a complete day of programming, with that day being co-branded as ‘This Is What We Mean Day’.