Stormzy hit up Wimbledon last weekend, but “The Weekend,” his new single with RAYE, is much a less formal affair.
“The Weekend” arrived on Wednesday, July 19, as the payoff to Stormzy’s Instagram breadcrumbs. It’s Stormzy’s third single since late June, following “Toxic Trait” featuring Fredo and “Longevity Flow,” and showcases a continued emotional evolution since his intimately vulnerable November 2022 album, This Is What I Mean.
The Omar Jones-directed video captures an unlikely meeting that turns into an adrenaline-inducing romance reserved for the weekends through the London-area artists’ dueling perspectives.
RAYE sings of meeting a man during a night out, “I took his number before I left / All night long he was on my mind / So I sent him a text that said / ‘Call me.'” She’s intrigued, but she has boundaries and stipulations (“‘Cause I’m workin’ all week, Monday to Friday / Let’s stay on the weekend”).
Stormzy isn’t deterred in his pursuit of a woman so beautiful she’s like “an artifact.” He asks if she’s available Monday. Nope. “Aight, Tuesday I’ll slide,” he raps, but RAYE is busy. “Is Wednesday cool?” he asks. Of course, RAYE works late on Wednesdays. You can probably guess where this is going: They can finally make time for each other come Friday.
“I’ma come through at the end of the week / Turn a real good girl into a freak,” Stormzy boasts in an effortless flow.
The free-spirited undertone is reminiscent of RAYE’s monster 2022 hit with 070 Shake, “Escapism,” which cracked No. 1 on the UK Official Singles Chart and peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 this January.
“I think as a woman when you’re processing such things in life, there are not really any healthy outlets for it,” RAYE told Uproxx of the song. “I think women do stereotypically face a lot of pressure to seem like they’ve got everything together — to be polite, to be smiley, to be kind, and grateful, and all of this stuff. So I wanted to create a story that was very blunt and honest about that time in my life.”
Watch the “The Weekend” video above.
