Stormzy

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2022

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The British hip-hop subgenre grime first started to bubble up in London in the early aughts. Artists like Wiley and Dizzee Rascal developed an entirely new style by rapping over lightning-fast beats inspired by UK garage, techno and jungle.

Today’s guest, Stormzy is at the forefront of grime’s newest generation. He rose to prominence in 2015 after uploading a video to YouTube where he freestyled over classic grime tracks. Since then Stormzy has released three number one albums in the UK, won three Brit Awards, and become the first British rapper to headline the Glastonbury festival.

Just before releasing his third album, This Is What I Mean, Stormzy met up with Rick Rubin in London for a cover story from i-d Magazine’s Royalty issue. This is the recording of that conversation. On today’s episode we’ll hear Stormzy play Rick songs from his new album, and explain why he decided to consider his audience last when recording it. And Stormzy talks about how a painful break-up and trusting God helped lead him to a new melodic, soulful sound.

You can listen to a playlist of some of our favorite Stormzy songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin
0:08.0	Grime is a rap subgenre, first started to bubble up in London in the early arts.
0:16.4	Artists like Wiley and Dizzy Rascal developed an entirely new way of rhyming over lightning-fast
0:22.2	beats.
0:23.6	The style was inspired by sounds popular in the UK in the 90s like garage, techno and jungle.
0:29.8	Today's guest, Stormzy, is at the forefront of Grimes newest generation.
0:34.8	He rose to prominence in 2015 after uploading a mixed tape-like video to YouTube where he
0:40.0	was free-siling over classic Grime tracks.
0:43.6	Since then, Stormzy has released two number one albums in the UK, one three Brit Awards,
0:48.9	and become the first British rapper to headline the Glastonbury Festival.
0:53.5	Just before releasing his third album, this is what I mean.
0:56.6	Stormzy met up with Rick Rubin in London for a cover story from I.D. magazine's royalty
1:01.2	issue.
1:02.2	This is the recording of that conversation.
1:05.0	On today's episode, we'll hear Stormzy play Rick's song from his new album and explain
1:09.2	why he decided to consider his audience last when recording it.
1:13.2	And Stormzy talks about how a painful breakup and trusting God helps lead him to a new,
1:18.7	melodic, soulful sound.
1:23.3	This is Broken Record.
1:24.9	I don't know it's for the digital age.
1:26.9	I'm just an original.
1:28.4	From London, here's Rick Rubin with Stormzy.
	...

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