Representation (Stormzy)

This is one of Stormzy`s first ever videos, I have decided to look at him as an artist and how he has been represented as a British Grime artist.

Background -
Michael Omari is better known by his stage name Stormzy, is an English grime and hip-hop artist. He won Best Grime Act at the 2014 and 2015 MOBO Awards and was named as an artist to look out for in the BBC's influential Sound of 2015 list. His most successful song to date is the BPI gold-selling "Shut Up", initially released as a freestyle to YouTube and later reaching number eight on the UK Singles Chart after a campaign for it to reach Christmas number one.

After garnering attention on the UK underground music scene via his Wicked Skengman series of freestyles over classic grime beats, Stormzy released his debut EP Dreamers Disease independently in July 2014. This is important as he is an independent artist and was not mainstream at this time which is different to his current musical status.

On 22 October, Stormzy won Best Grime Act at the MOBO awards. Later that month he became the first unsigned rapper to appear on Later with Jools Holland performing the song "Not That Deep" from Dreamers Disease. By promoting himself on this platform he was able to target a larger audience.

In November 2014, Stormzy collaborated with rapper Chip and Shalo on the track "I'm Fine", also appearing in a video for the song. The track is part of Chip's upcoming Believe & Achieveproject.

On 7 January 2015, Stormzy came number 3 in the BBC Introducing top 5 on Radio 1. 

In March 2015 he released the single "Know Me From", which entered the UK Singles Chart at number 49. In September 2015, he released a final instalment to his "WickedSkengMan" freestyle series, "WickedSkengMan 4", onto iTunes, along with a studio version of his "Shut Up" freestyle over XTC's Functions On The Low instrumental.

The track debuted at number 18 on the UK chart dated 24 September, becoming Stormzy's first top 40 hit and the first ever freestyle to reach the top 40 in the United Kingdom highlighting his popularity and audience appeal!

On 12 December 2015, Stormzy performed "Shut Up" during British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua's ring-walk for his fight versus Dillian Whyte. Originally, "Shut Up", released as part of the "WickedSkengMan 4" single EP in September 2015, charted at number 59. Since the performance, it began climbing up the iTunes chart and into the top 40. 

As a result, Stormzy launched a Christmas number 1 campaign to get the song to number 1.It generated a large amount of support which made it enter the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart on 18 December 2015 at number 8, a week prior to the Christmas number 1 week, succeeding the chart position of "WickedSkengMan 4". It has become Stormzy's highest-charting single. 

In Apr 25, 2016 Stormzy dropped "Scary" freestyle which is also the first track of his new album. He has announced on his backstage interview with Tim Westwood that the new album will come out in around summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic7cx6LLOn4&safe=active