Heavy Is The Head

About

<i>Heavy Is the Head</i> feels like the crowning moment in Stormzy’s defining hour. Album two arrives two years after the incendiary <i>Gang Signs & Prayer</i>, and in that time the South London MC has emerged as one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Britain. <i>Heavy Is the Head</i> is testament to that new spirit. Played out over 16 song, the album sees Stormzy lay himself bare on a record that reckons with the pressures of fame and the weight of expectation that befalls a young man ordained spokesperson for his generation. “When Banksy put the vest on me/It felt like God was testing me,” he says on “Audacity” with Headie One, calling back to that iconic moment on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage where he wore a stab-proof Union Jack designed by the artist. Elsewhere, there are moments of impassioned prayer on “Do Better” and sorrowful confessions on “Lesson.” “Superheroes” is a love letter to an emerging black British generation, to whom he say, “Our parents were legends/They had to migrate,” before adding: “All I see is innovators and a bag of icon.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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