Stormzy has been catching on in the US since the release of his debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer earlier this year. His Frank Ocean cover proved he can do a lot more than just rap, and his appearance on Linkin Park’s “Good Goodbye” raised his — and grime’s — profile quite a bit. His newly-found global popularity probably contributed in a very real way to his nomination for a Mercury Prize alongside J Hus and Loyle Carner, and now to cap off the first half of his illustrious 2017, he’s released a music video for the standout track on his album, “Cigarettes And Cush.”
The cinematic visual plays out like a movie; in fact the opening titles actually call it a film “inspired by the album Gang Signs & Prayer. Directed by Daps, the storyline depicts Stormzy as a highly successful — ahem — alternative businessman who meets and begins a relationship with a pretty girl in a club. To write anymore about it would feel a lot like spoiling the movie, so I won’t tell you what happens, but there are some pretty good plot twists and nice, suspenseful build in action. It was one of the few times I wasn’t able to predict what would happen by the end. If this rap thing doesn’t work out for him, he may actually have a future in film writing.
