Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. (born 26 July 1993), better known by his stage name, Stormzy, is a British grime MC, singer and rapper from Croydon, South London. Primarily influenced by the likes of Wiley and Skepta, Omari also cites singers such as Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill as influences on his sound.

Stormzy first entered the music scene in the mid-late 2000s as a young member of DDB, a grime crew that was active at the time. Following DDB, he was part of UK rap crew Clifton Bloodline (also known as Ghetto Superstars) in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

It was in the early 2010s Stormzy would first begin to gain notability. He began releasing freestyles to Chris Brown, Drake and Justin Bieber instrumentals as well as through collaborations with other up-and-comers such as Cadet. In 2013, he released his debut mixtape, 168, which spans rap and dubstep, and was created over the course of one week.

Rising to prominence after releasing his debut EP, Dreamer’s Disease, and working with artists such as Professor Green, Jacob Banks and Nick Jonas, Stormzy won Best Grime Act at the 2014 and 2015 MOBO Awards, and was named as an artist to look out for on the BBC’s influential Sound of 2015 list.

He became the first artist to break the UK top 40 with a freestyle; this record was first set with the 2015 single “Wicked Skengman 4” and later topped by the diss track “Shut Up.”

He released his platinum-selling debut album, Gang Signs and Prayer, in February 2017. It includes the singles “Big For Your Boots,” “Cold,” “Cigarettes and Cush” and “Blinded By Your Grace Pt. 2,” and was executive produced by industry heavyweight Fraser T Smith.

In 2019, he returned with the long-awaited “Vossi Bop,” which had first been teased on his Snapchat several years earlier. The song topped the UK Singles Chart, making it his highest-charting recording to date. Later that year, Stormzy became the first black solo British act to headline the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, a massive accomplishment.

In December 2019, he released his sophomore album Heavy is the Head, which includes the previously-released singles “Vossi Bop,” “Crown,” “Wiley Flow,” “Own It,” and “Audacity.”

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