London London hello London my city miss it yeah you must do yeah I would never leave London I don't think of course of course if I did don't have a place I think I could move to is New York brother and sister yeah London New York yeah yeah well that's all the flows that were on display on well made me do it right there there you go with a few extra to boots so listen we got this view bro and it is a rear view of London because London's
not known for its high views they all came later to me London has always has always been a ground-level city for the most part so when you stand up here and you take a look at it from an altitude what do you what do you see what's you
know what does it mean to you this place like tell people around the world what it is Ah that's a good question when I look here I just finished my City though I just finished this in my city like and I'm not in like a um
ego way of like it's my city but this is just a little bit I mean a little bit it may be a bit of that as well but yeah this is just like there's no place like it you know you're you're grown up now storms you're on album three we're gonna
get into all of that but while we're up here I want to ask you like this whole era is about perspective is it not literally perspective that's one of my favorite words yeah no it is perspective purpose purpose bravery freedom freedom
feeling feelings my servitude servitude ready let's get into this man very ready I've known storms aka Big Mike so many nicknames a long time we've never had a chance to sit down and dive into music and life like this but this is the perfect album to do it he's in a very reflective place so let's reflect right here in London on Apple music with stormzy it's crazy man when I was listening to this album I was like you could have kept this
just for you you could have just held on to this and then made something else all together and given it to us like it's it feels that important to you that's very true yeah yeah I feel like um I always say this was the more selfish thing I've done like creatively yeah as you said I could have definitely kept it to myself but also in a sense of I made it for myself and I didn't make it with anyone in mind I didn't make it I didn't
consider the audience I didn't pre-meditate like oh like I came from this I got to get you yeah like it didn't serve any purpose other than this is how I feel and this is what I mean like without you know I mean with no pun intended the crazy thing about that statement is that the way it normally goes and fans and artists know this industry knows this you reach a certain level of success that becomes fuel it's Firepower for the next thing and the
next thing and the next thing that's the timeline to get to a point where you had the kind of success you had on the last album achieve the level of international status and then to divorce yourself from that to remove that from the equation of creativity that blows my mind how challenging was that to try not to lean into your past achievements when in process um if I'm honest yeah it was it was easier than I thought it would be in the sense of
this is the best way to put it like I felt like at this point in my life not my career because I feel like that the this time this time in my life and this album and the music is it's life yeah it's live it's not Korea it's not
Korea it's very synonymous like as in that where I'm at music is just very synonymous to where I'm at we've left it so it felt like it was like this is all I can do and this is all I want to do and this is all uh you know I mean this
is it felt like there wasn't anywhere else to go other than okay like just put on wax exactly how you feel and just vent and just breathe and just listen to yourself think hear yourself think and just get it all out in that way like
because even at that time in my life and still to this day like there was a lot of peace and Stillness and my separation from noise just allowed me to hear God's voice more it allowed for me to just really be present in myself and
okay okay this is how I feel this is this is my perspective okay why do I feel like that like I was it was very reflective I feel like that that's the big question it's funny because we're really good at distracting ourselves from why you know and what when what we feel there's so many things available to us now everyone in this room everyone watching this to get away from that sense of inner knowledge you know that inner self
alcohol drugs you quit weed yeah as long as I've known you you've smoked weeds yeah and do you know is I've got pandemic I think it might have been a couple days into lockdown and I came downstairs and I had weed and I I just made a re I just had to make a decision I was like okay if I'm gonna be in this house all alone for the next Hot Box thing for the next two years I know that can't be healthy though and I've always known that like
anytime I've suffered from like um mental health problems that that's always and this is this is weed smokers to be fair people's experience things differently you know I can't speak on anything else but I've always known just
for myself that yet I'm sure that's a big Link in it that's I'm sure that's a link to it as in that when cool when I saw a weed yeah I feel great but there's an aftermath of it that doesn't always make me feel great and I always say the
best version of myself isn't isn't when I'm smoking weed that because then I can there's a clear difference in my size and when you're smoking weed okay yeah you're good you're all right when you're not smoking When You're great and you're
waking up at a certain time and you're yeah you're sharp and you're in you're doing this in the studio more you're you know what I mean so I was like and you're healthier I'm just healthier a lot did you replace it with anything
else did you need to replace it with anything else I'll replace the routine like I'm I'm about people laugh at me like my friends and my teammate because I'm I'm I'm I've got quite like a I wouldn't say like an old man routine but like I got I wake up very very early okay uh I've got like a I wake up extremely early like how early what 5 45 6 o'clock 6 30 though all right anywhere between five five thirty and six thirty that's right
I wake up I go downstairs I'll do a little workout in my front room yeah I let my I let my boys go Taylor then I'd take them for a walk and I'll let my morning walk is my that's my that is my best time now yeah yeah I listen to my
gospel yeah I pray and then take the braids to the park bring them back home I go to the gym yeah eat at the gym come back home feed the boys and then take my day from there so like my eyes and I by about 10 o'clock I've
conquered my day it's beautiful yeah yeah and it gives me a good sense of accomplishment you know what most of us are doing we wake up what that yeah yeah yeah yeah you don't do that anymore I go on YouTube though I go on YouTube when I wake up I go on YouTube My YouTube's so um it's very tailored for me so a lot cousin a lot of like football yeah uh fantasy I'm I'm a Fantasy Football freak now Fantasy Premier League there's a
difference between going on YouTube and exploring passions and Diving deeper into things you're interested in that's something it does do really well is it opens that door for a deeper experience in a lot of social media like I'm on Tick Tock now I'm really enjoying my foreign content it's just but man hooks you in it hooks you in and apart from YouTube you did make a decision that you were gonna step away from social media that was a conscious
thing yeah yeah very conscious because for I think for a long time it was just like I don't believe in intuition like I used to believe that oh like I just felt something but yeah the closer I've got to God I understand that it's all him it was Holy Spirit just guided me yeah and I think for a long time God was just trying to tell me all that yeah yeah this place ain't too healthy for me yeah because you said which I thought was
really interesting God didn't make us didn't design us to consume as much information at all and in the note you say that's conversations for another time it's another time yeah yeah so I'm interested to know kind of the thought
behind there I've got so many like I think I've lectured a lot of my friends about it I've chewed error off about it I've got a lot of thoughts and feelings about it where I feel like and and people are different again I don't ever
I don't ever one thing I never want to be is you know like now that I'm off social media like yeah yeah hey guys like I don't I'm not no one's annoying Uncle it's like do do even when it comes to smoking weed I'm like yo I don't do it
do your thing like totally fair but I'm on social media if it's for you is finding it but but to be fair to you I ask you the questions yeah I'm interested to know your perspective I feel like um there is something about
scrolling and just consuming so much of people's lives and things that I just don't think we were designed for that there's a reason why God didn't give me the ability to hear everyone in this room's thoughts and to see are they and you're on holiday and oh yo you're over there and oh you said this and you think that and you think there's a reason that we have our devices and there's a reason God's given us this particular set of
skills and attributes because I just don't think it's healthy you know I mean like I've waking up and everyone thinks this everyone thinks that everyone's talking about that everyone's I there's just a part of it I feel like when you
consume all of that like it's you're becoming it I'll tell you something bro when I'm on it I'll tell you what I'm not doing I'm not meditating yeah yeah yeah not doing yoga yeah I'm not walking my dogs I'm not doing things that are
investing in here yeah yeah um just to your point only pulling everything out of there and people like to talk about this a lot something I've heard a lot over the years where people like all that protect your energy like that's a that's a that's a quite a new thing the new age acts yeah I protect my energy like if you're recklessly consuming social media and that's what they say because some people don't recklessly consume it they
do it in a moderate way but if you're recklessly consuming it you're not protecting your energy because you're just consuming do you know what I mean like as in I can't like if I can say in my real life oh that person is a bad person I don't want them near me but when I'm on my phone I consume I can consume that person all day it's all First Impressions I consume their thoughts I consume their videos I consume their photos but you know so I'm
not you're not actually protecting your energy like people do it in their reality in terms of the tangible that physical sense but I was like on this place I can't protect my energy because it's just flying at me from a thousand different Avenues and it's like when I came off it there was a part of me that felt like like it wasn't Brave I thought like oh like you should be able to stand on the internet and like and it was it weren't even nothing
to do with like negative traffic it was more just like you should be able to stand and consume everything and then I was like no I'm sensitive that I'm sensitive in a sense of I feel like I feel I feel things that's powerful that's know yourself yeah that's that's getting to a place of self-awareness understanding where your limitations are because if you don't know your limitations it's all there all the weeds you want to smoke all the
social media you want to consume or the liquor you want to drink or the social that the the parties you want to go it's all there at some point you've got to know yourself and I think you choose people really well or they choose you
you gravitate towards people I think that will ultimately help you discover those things you know again you mentioned in that beautiful note in that letter um that it was your friend and mine Adele who said to you you need to walk
away and you take a break you need some space right protect your energy what was that conversation that was that was like I don't like yeah I love it I love it and we've always had like amazing conversations and just really like
that's that's a that's a true friend of mine that's not like a a music friend like hey man I'm I'm me and you're you like it's like so whenever we kick it like we have we've had really like beautiful and and deep conversations and
yeah that at that time it was like we weren't going on holidays we weren't that kind of enjoying the fruits of our labor like do you know what I mean because when you have it man you just don't want to let it go yeah and more so
it's more like you just get caught in the rap race or just life like just the busyness of life and like the distractions of life and I think she just reminded me that it's important to to have time to yourself in it like and
to and to have a a space of peace and silence and where you can hear yourself think you know what I mean so she went away we went away yeah yeah Jamaica Jamaica and it was the most like how many of you it was five of us just you and your friends it was me Adele Cleo inflow and April it changed my life it was the most beautiful I can't even explain it was so like it was it was really really beautiful and really healing and really peaceful
and just it's it it we God was God was on on that trip because people go on vacation all the time they come back you can feel rejuvenated you can get even enough space to decide to make a a change in your life but this was not a change in your life this was life-changing yeah yeah that's a good way to put it yeah yeah we we just spoke we just spoke and we just had conversations it wasn't like a retreat where it was like hey man we're
going to really we're just like yo let's just go it wasn't conscious yeah it wasn't conscious it wasn't a conscious effort of like we are good but I think each of those people who are named are generally as in they will always have a
special place in my heart because they are beautiful souls and like they have great hearts and they're like and just listening to them talking to them on that trip like we was just it was just amazing I can't even explain it that an
inflow is forget it he he's like not only is he like the flipping greatest producer enough he is I can't I can't explain it like he's the kind of person if you talk to him by the end of the conversation you have you just talked about your your childhood and yeah there's there's an Enlightenment to this thing yeah yeah he's just he's very he's very ordained by God to be who he is that's how I explain him yeah not even away from like
the musicians yes the man he is he's just ordained by God to be just this person that's beautiful that's a beautiful way of putting it man like ordained by God and I think that ultimately no matter what you believe in
and where you place your faith we're ultimately ordained by God to try and realize whatever goals he put forward in our life right and the word that gets kicked around now which I'm a fan of is manifestation and that was something you
firmly believe in you talk about it in your lyrics All the Time so okay young storms manifests this which leads to manifesting this which leads to manifesting this and then you come off the back of the last album and you've
manifested it it's there for you the houses the cars the family's good your country respects you the world knows who you are and loves you right what happens when you manifest it all and you and you sort of catch up to yourself
you know when you realize like I can manifest it and my men and I've sort of caught up to myself now it's like I have to stand still is that kind of what happened in Jamaica a little bit Jamaica felt like there was a time I went in the war and
It Soldier you can't tell this story about it sounding like the most like the campfire attack but when people hear this album way past yeah yeah I think yeah but I'll go I'll go to the war I'll go deep into the water and walk out
and close my eyes look at the sunset close my eyes again and pray and pray and pray and lack it was one of those like afro moments where it's like I I know this is God like and I've I've known God my whole life like I've grew up in church I've known God loved God praise God worship God but this was different like because it was like it was like I was an adult and this is what this is what I always say I always encourage people to go in their own
personal Journey with God and build a relationship with God because it's like we hear God and you've okay yeah that's that person's garden and you go to church but it's like when you have your own personal encounter and you feed him
and you experience him it's like it's undeniably okay okay this is my relationship yeah and this is this is this is what everyone's talking about yeah and this is what you've got I've gone to church my whole life and I've
seen I'm like okay like I know God's like come like I love him I'm feeling prism about that to actually fill him to speak to you yes and hear him and when sometimes when I say hearing God people think it's like this deep voice saying Michael and it's like it's not that it's just you really fooling your spirit like okay I meant to turn left oh okay I meant to stand still oh no I meant to turn right and in that moment I was like
oh God I feel you and I hear you like and and that's why I always encourage a level of Silence in people's life a level of solitude as well yeah and people always relate Solitude and silence and like separation they they
see it as like a kind of boring difficult like toss they see it as like you've got to go to the mountains like even so for example quitting weed and not being on social media people think that's profound I'm like it's not it's not that
profound like I'm not if you ask all my friends I'm still that's the lifestyle you know I mean yes but it's more like just creating little bits of Separation that allow me to hear God and allow me to hear myself think and to allow me to just feel like and be present and that's why I just encourage little things like that in people's lives that and Jamaica was that it was like okay we're flying out and we're gonna like be in this space with
loved ones and and people who care for each other and we're gonna speak and we're gonna talk and we're gonna yeah and that just creates as silence in it that creates that that allows God to work that allows him to speak and guide like and a lot of the time the noise of our life and the destruction of our life we can't hear it yeah and I think that's that's what led me to the album yeah I feel like you saw it coming though in a weird way and I
feel like every album speaks the truth about the next phase your life and you know heavy is the head man I mean it's like you knew yeah it's like the crown was coming you had to put it on you had to see how it felt you put on the vest
you know you went out in front of that crowd it's iconic and you find yourself at the end of that experience it's like you almost knew like you almost knew it was coming we've have used heaviest day it's so funny because
when I look back at that time even when I look at the album cover and I'm like yeah you were heavy man that yeah yeah yeah and it's it's there's a part of it that's sad as well because it's like there's also a part of
it where I'm very grateful because I'm like oh I'm not that person anymore and thank God now but it was it was heavier and it was also underst I think the big difference is God and the reason why I always say God is because at that time
what I learned now is all that heaviness you're I'm not meant to carry that alone like you're not meant to like this life we need we're not meant to fight all these battles and hold all these burdens and fight all these demons you're not meant to do that alone this is why we have God because you were definitely the Fate was fighting to find you on that record but it had to fight through I've achieved this success now here's how I value it
it causes jealousy here's how I deal with that right oh man the audacity there's conflict on that record a lot yeah a lot in a conflict and that was something that I was battling with from the beginning of my career like
like internal conflict yeah I think the big realization was that I'm just a man in it like and even at that time I was a boy like I was a boy and everything that I was dealing with of course I'm that heavy because I'm not meant so
so this is how I look at it if I was dealing with all that stuff now the way I know God it'll be fine I wouldn't feel like how heavy is the head I wouldn't feel like I'm heavy and I could have all that weight I had done here today in
2022 yeah and I'll be fine because you're not carrying it on your own I'm not carrying it on my own I would just say okay ah I'm deemed him of all of this that's fine that's wake up we pray and I got Brothers brah Enoch like I got
I got brothers who I can call and pray with right now who'll say I'll say yo like this is a heavy time of my life and I've got to do this and this and this is bugging me and like and I was and I'll say oh that's fine because I do all things through God who strengthens me yes do you know what I mean so it's even a lot of the time when I talk to people and they're like they're like oh like what this newness about you I'm like
it's not it's not me it's just I've got a great understanding of the God I serve that's all it is it's like I'm the exact same storms the exact same Mac from back then it's just now when you understand God and you understand how he works it's just a lot easier to navigate for example so perfect example this album every time I made an album to the point this this is even I don't think I've ever said this there was a time when I used to think
I genuinely I used to do the maths on it I used to think I can't be a musician forever because what it takes for me to make an album is so emotionally physically and mentally taxing I was like that this is unsustainable this is
unsustainable so every time I go to make an album I'm gonna get in this hole of depression and overwhelmingness and like pressure and like I was like this isn't that to the point and I've never been a quitter I've always been said I'm gonna
do and I looked at it and I said this ain't sustainable warm I meant to do this for the rest of my life imagine when I have my family and then yeah all right guys gotta make an album I'm gonna be flipping the president I was like this is insane like so I always used to think I can't do this for the rest of my life like and then this time around now that I understand God I'm like oh it's fine so what I do all I do is I go on Studio
we pray Channel literally Bible God be in the room Holy Spirit just guide whatever and I hope for the best and I trust God that it's gonna be great and if it's not that's fine because that's his plan so I whether I leave there with
the greatest song I ever made if I leave there and I've done one lyric if I leave there and I've done nothing it's fine because I've given it to God and I'm doing it through him that's it's not I've taken the pressure off myself
because I'm not meant to do it myself like you're not meant to it's hard like it's difficult you know it must mean that there are times when you sit back and listen to what you've created and it's it's the closest thing you have to what we have that you listen back to it and you're listening to it for the first time almost because you've taken away a certain amount of that kind of crippling analysis that can really exactly Shake
yeah exactly and I listen back to it and I'm like I am so in awe of lack of God's work amazing yeah like I said I'm like like listen back to that album and I'm so like I'm so proud I'm so I feel so blessed and I feel I feel so happy and
I feel so happy that the God I serve is the God I serve it's like with this body of work when I listen back I'm like oh you've shown you've shown me that if I lean on you you will always do it and he's done it from the beginning of my
life you know I mean but when I listen to this because this is the first time I really said let go and let God like and I listen back and I'm like these are songs these are Melodies these are Lyrics these are flows these are ideas these are Sonics these are sounds these are feelings that I did I could have never of like done that alone impossible like if I made this album yeah without this this um culture of like letting God do it
that's a totally different album It's it starts in the most bear way possible yeah yeah it's just these beautiful chords and then it's you and it slowly reveals itself over eight minutes Fire and Water yeah yeah yeah yeah and the
whole idea is just like the process of what you've been through to to achieve the whole the whole whole is laid out for us in that first eight minutes it's mind-blowing storms like and immediately as well you you really lay
yourself bare lyrically and and I think you show us that you're doing a lot of real self-awareness work recognizing that your flaws are ultimately just Lessons Learned right and but you have to acknowledge them in
order to move past them was it hard no it wasn't hard was it joyful I've found a lot of strength in my vulnerability like I'm a lack you see so even earlier when I said I'm sensitive yeah when I say that I feel strong yeah in the sense of like
I'm just owning everything about me like as in that is how I am that I find strength in saying that I find strength in like saying yo I'm sorry for that or yo I love you like you know I mean so making that record just felt like it felt like this yeah it was it wasn't difficult it wasn't it didn't feel like man like it just felt like this was necessary like this is how I feel and at this moment in time and for the rest of my life I pray as
well like as an artist that's all I can do and twins always really encourage that in me as well like we're slack and when I talk to artists as well I always say your job is to just feel and Express which is the most so when I leave here if I go Studio however I feel that's what that's what I meant to get out of your own way yeah and and I always say what a blessing it is that I have a gift where it's going to resonate I have the skill
set and I have I have everything that God's blessed me with to make art out of how I feel you know there's some songs on here that are really sad man but it's like you find this joy in in this kind of unrequited experience of being in
love and then losing love and that can drum up all kinds of emotions from acceptance to anger frustration jealousy resentment you're trying to find peace out of it yeah I think about a song like bad blood it's almost like you're
extending your hand whilst you're also saying goodbye I wonder what the purpose of that song is from a relationship ending point of view that bad blood's one of my that's probably that's one of the most precious to me in terms of like the reason why that song feels so like sincere and like it means a lot to me is because do you know what I really wanted to say on that and it's what one of my favorite lyrics on the whole album is when I say
um can't you tell I love you girl it's obvious because it's like I've always said it like as rappers or musicians sometimes our love views or our sorries or our we wrap them and we make them a bit stylistic you know I mean it's like I love you babe all that I mean and I was just like because you have to come out of the booth at some point you don't want to face your voice exactly you've got to see the random and you've got to
like you really gotta like face face the results what you've done so it was like for me to say that felt liberating Manito I love you girl but it's the weirdest song in a lot of respects in a beautiful way because it's like you're letting go but it's almost like at times you're asking for a second chance and I can't quite tell what your what what you want to leave on the table I think you described it best but it was just that I
just wanted to find peace you know like as in and even throughout the whole record like anytime I speak about my relationship like it's like it's like a figuring out of like how I'm feeling yeah that's why there's
different versions of it like as you said it's all these different facets of love like and bad blood was the most peaceful as in it felt like ah this is this is what it is as in it's mad love and it will never be bad it will never be bad blood because
because of what it was it removes all the acrimony which is such a byproduct of of when people no longer have time to share with each other and we're not all supposed to spend the rest of our lives together with very little exception in terms of family and what really is is a blood situation there's a moment where Faith reveals itself in the most amazing way bro um please is like stunning it's so good that you know we get it twice we get
your version we get Sanford's version which is beautiful as well there's so many powerful observations in there and what I want to just touch on really quickly was this idea of um uh being judged right being property
of the public when you're on top it's great everyone wants to tell you you're great when you're under scrutiny I can imagine it's close cousin to hell yeah because you only have one Earth you can exist on and one Consciousness you can
use and when it's being infiltrated by people all the time telling you this or that almost to an unavoidable extent I can't imagine much worse right from a mental health point of view you cover that right there very any of that song and you you say please leave Megan alone yeah yeah and you don't leave it there that would just be something for people to make their own assumption on you then explain it it's powerful Moment On The
Record yeah and it's it's so interesting as well because that record I reckon was probably the most freestyle I was just kind of Bob no I just grabbed the sm7e and was just like and just started rapping that and
it was it was a stream of Consciousness yeah yeah and when I was in New York I actually watched the Oprah and Megan interview and I must have made it maybe sometime after that time yeah because even it's so funny because even when I said it
I didn't know I wanted to say that like a lot of things on the album like I wanna maybe even the whole album yeah nothing I didn't know uh I want to say this yeah yeah I would yeah I want to say that it was just like okay as I said let Gordon let God in the room invite him into the room and just fill and express that there's one thing to capture that moment and let your inner voice ignore all the outer distractions and stuff it's another
thing to stand by it leave it on the album make sure it doesn't get cut make sure you don't go and over analyze it so there's truth to it for you super truth a lot of the time whenever I feel things I feel in the most sincere genuine way
but then sometimes how people receive it I I forget that odd it means something for me to feel like this do you get what I mean that perfect example that the Megan lyric that is the most genuine um just leave her alone it's not
political it's not rooted in like yeah it's just a genuine lever a lot like just leave her alone you know like if he was at a bar or you was out you saw someone and it's just that leave her alone that but also you have some
experience in that right because at the end of the day like I said you've been put on a pedestal bro for most of your career you have millions of fans around the world but you also know what it is to feel like the like the trade is close
like what do I have to give up and what can I preserve right it's intense it's intense yeah it's super intense and that's why I like I just I really wanted yeah I wanted to say that like uh I didn't know I wanted to say that but when I said I was like yeah I want to say that like well you know you summed it up beautifully when you talked about and your words bro and I'm I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not gonna butcher them but something to the extent
of what it is to ultimately not it not be your home to to to be welcomed into a home but not know how to how to speak yeah yeah in that environment because it's not your natural environment but being under so much scrutiny it's just like
where do you turn where do you turn yeah not at all salacious or like it'll be a headline bro you know that but it did it's not it's not written from that perspective you can tell it was just it's like base level Human Experience
level moment right just just leave her alone man yeah it's crazy you know as in like and there's been there's been a few moments in my life like my actual reality where like I've had to like say that yo leave him alone or leave her alone like and that was one of the moments like just on wax people recognize that they're in you and I think that's why in a lot of cases the institutions that govern Look to You for guidance not only
do you have the ear of of your audience which is a primarily young impactful and influential voice what does that feel like sometimes when people are contacting you I mean there's a line in there as well and I can't tell whether
it's a little Flex or if it's genuine observation where it's like should have left me should have left me out of politics or should I what's the list that left me out the politics you should let me out the politics I'm not sure
whether that's you saying like because I'm gonna disrupt it you shouldn't have let me in the room or whether it's like I'm not here for it or a bit of both yes it's it's so funny it's a funny relationship that I have with that like I have a funny relationship with the relationship you've read with me in the sense the best way to describe it is I could say if if Jordan was on the flippantelli being a prick and I said yo he's a prick
okay just in that moment I just felt like he was a prick and I expressed that but people will hold on to it and like stay off social media Mike you know listen listen I try telling that to these like that but um a lot of the time
like I've I've just felt things like from a real place and expressed them in it becomes a thing and I'm like I didn't even mean I guess it is a coffee thing because I said it or whatever but no it's the relationship that people have
for the relationship and I'm always grateful for that because sometimes I've I've rejected that because I'm like it's if sometimes it feels a bit overwhelming but yeah I would say off like what I've learned is I thank God because it's a platformer people well I say resonates with people yeah but a lot of the time I'm just saying some that I felt on the day perfect examples leave Megan alone what the British tabloids will do with that is
insane and it's like no no just leave her alone forget even forget that she's the Royal whatever that's a woman just going about her life with her husband it has a kid trying to figure it out you are just nasty and just being nasty to the woman clear as day leave her alone and there's stormzy sort of stands by and it's like okay I guess I did but yeah sometimes what people can turn the the things I say to you but it's not
it's not a it's not a burden or a curse it's not like it because you also have this amazing chosen family of peers and contemporaries icons mentors friends equals you're not alone I mean that scene and Mel made me do it when you all
congregate on the lawn and up on The Veranda overlooking the lawn is so powerful hearing Jazzy B Jazzy B that's the legend Africa say the soul to soul 100 legendary groundbreaking human being right how did you meet Jesse bean I met
Jazzy B through twin but through shaniv from Warner we just linked up one day in the studio and we just spoke for hours or just on a real human one it was just really yeah and like it was just a really beautiful conversation
and it was also I I always get a lot of Joy when like I'm able to give anyone their flowers that because as everyone knows up by now like I'm overstanding of the reason why I exist so anyone in the black space of of music culture
entertainment who's still here like I really enjoy connecting with them even if they're not here man I mean at the moment when Jamal Edwards family are holding the frame portrait of Jamal being here in the UK and trying to find my own voice in media and work out what I was going to do at radio one and everything else while Jamal was building the blueprint of independent distribution content media for a community and a culture and a music that
was looking for Independence right looking for an independent place he did that yeah he's a dream man I mean his legacy forever forever forever forever his time on Earth way too short but his legacy forever amen amen you
know the beautiful thing about Jamal is that there is just an undeniable uh understanding by everyone in the culture and everyone who's fans of the quotes are that this was an important and integral and groundbreaking groundbreaking that that
is just a general consensus started a lot of it yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah in terms of his legacy it is just an undeniable pillar you know like I said there's no there's no debate there's no question it's just like yo this guy was he was everything everyone says he was you know I mean so yeah the concept of family isn't it's big for any artist whether you put it on the line or not it's undeniable influence on what you do
you've really addressed some important stuff on this record there's a verse where you talk about forgiving your father which is massive massive because that's a place of Peace for you and when did you start to recognize that relationship differently see it differently than a young person whose ego is and the trauma combines toxic combination when you start to realize it could be something different for you probably when I started getting closer
to God I don't know when I don't know I don't think there was like a sudden switch but it was just like did it hurt you when people said your father's proud of you before you'd been able to realize that place was it something you wanted to reject because you were still angry it was something I I want to say indifferent I was indifferent to it was like okay that's that's cool and then you grow and then you have empathy perspective like what
we talked about and I was like ah I gained more perspective on it where I was like okay I'm sure you're sorry like it's been 29 years now like I'm very sure you're sorry like anyone would be sorry yeah and I'm sure that you would love to be um forgiven just the same way I would for anything I've done you know I mean like just perspective on it have you had a chance to speak with him direct or is it on the record at the moment yes on the
cards I every I always say I'm gonna do it but I've not done it and there's nothing actually stopping me apart from maybe just my own just on my list of priorities I just I need to bump it up to the top and and that's not I'm I'm not happy about that that's not the right thing and yet man you you you're dragging your mom kicking and screaming onto your wrinkles every time she loves it though yeah right she loves it she loves it so focusing on the
nurturing side of your life and knowing that the relationship with your mum is Paramount to your growth now being a mature person who's able to look after yourself how has your relationship with your mum changed and how do how do you see the value of that relationship now like what's really important yeah my mom's just my that's just my bridge in that we just laugh me and my mom just laugh like we joke her Joy just brings me a lot of Joy so
that's I think our relationship is just a very beautiful joyful one like when if I call my mom now the way she would answer the phone you'll know straight away my mom is at one of my best friends man she's like same man yeah and and let
me tell you like hearing that you that relationship in real time in the odd moment that she shows up in the journey that we get to share it's so beautiful because like yeah I don't get more but not but man it comes
a time when you get when you have to stand on your own two feet God willing that's the order of things so it's like making the most of those moments man every single moment you know what I'm saying amen you know I said to you when uh I came and said what's up before we we started talking I was like it's your 444 you know what I mean when I say that yeah I I hate you I get I get what you mean this is this is the moment when
like Jay did you get to make something purely for yourself I feel like all the great artists ultimately make this distinction at some point on their Journey where it's like you said the beginning it's selfish very selfish I do
this for my relationship in his case I do this for my relationship with God and my self-growth in your particular case you mentioned Jay on the record yeah oh I've got I've got so many lyrics about jiggling that yeah I think I've got you
alluded you allude to conversations you allude to someone yeah yeah some kind of work you've been doing and I I just wanted to ask you the nature of your relationship not for any other reason except I think that he's becoming so
someone of such an inspiring status the work he does beyond the music now is just it's so incredible and I know that that's part of your your goal too and I wonder if if that's kind of the nature of your relationship in a way is is
beyond like bars and more about change yeah I think the way I look at is just like I always say there is no one there's no one who has inspired me and my brothers more than him in terms of just like how he behaves how he conducts himself his how he his approach to Art his approach his approach to business his approach to life he's opposed to family like yeah there's no one there's no one who I look at more in our full lack
yeah you inspire me now have you talked to him off the Record about these things yeah I've I've said like chunky like chunky paragraphs are black because as I said like even like with Jazzy be like it's I think it's so
important like if and and again I'm a feeler in it so if I feel something like yo that was sick or yo you're amazing like um I'm that person I would see if I saw anyone anyone who had the song that I resonated with or done something that I loved or
wasn't a film I like I'm saying yo can I get a picture of Yo you're sit and I'm I'm giving them all their flowers so with jigar if I see him the way I see him he's gonna get he's got he he he overstands like yeah how much he means
to me and how much he means to our snack so how do you translate that into your journey you're at a point now where God flows through you and success and the platform to communicate and influence is right before you you've
made the album that frees up the lane to do whatever you want to do so in many respects relinquish that connection to success which can ultimately hold you back so how do how has it changed your ambition to do good that's a good question I
think my ambition my idea of ambition and hunger and success I think has really changed I think it's the same in a sense of do I want to sell 100 million records of course I do yeah do I want to win all the Grammys
and all the Brit Awards of course if I can do do I wanna of course I do in it there's still that but then thank God yeah yeah always because you know Ambitions in My DNA like in terms it's just me being like that yeah that kid fans still wants yeah yeah yeah yeah I hear that if I was a footballer I want to win the World Cup I want to score the most goals that season like I think that's just very much ingrained in me as a human like but um also
there's a there's a new ambition and a new Hunger and a new success and the way I Define it is that for example for my next record or whenever I go in studio whenever I rap music My hunger and my ambition lies in being like the greatest songwriter I can be and what does that mean that means on that line we gotta figure out the coldest way to say this like I want to say this and I'm not going to say it like that am I going to zoom into the
detail of what I'm feeling or am I just gonna say I love you and building that skill set of like okay today on this song I'm gonna say I love you but tomorrow I'm gonna talk about the scent of perfume she leaves on the pillow when
is it good to use that one and when is it the right time to use that one and marrying that with beautiful Melody and okay we need to I was supposed to tell our kids about the birds and the bees yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I
mean that's a brutally heart aching line yeah yeah yeah and my attention to that is where my Hunger is now like the road I was on was to the probably the most important point in life's Evolution that you can reach which is explaining how life kind of works from the human level and we didn't make it we didn't make it hardcore and that that attention to detail and that attention to lack lyric and that attention to song and music and
wait what's the line after that though I guess I didn't keep my word I get I was meant to tell the kids about the bees and the birds I guess I didn't keep to my words but yeah so you see when you talk about the hunger and that ambition yeah
that that the way I wrap on fire and water I see and think about there's no like there's none of that in that part I see that I put that in this in in a greater esteem than like maybe some verse that people think is my greatest when
I'm like and I'm them up and I'm talking about this and that like but I feel like no I made me do it it's seven minutes of just that but I feel like I'm rapping my ass off on fire and water yeah you get what I mean like as an in and that's that's where like my newfound ambition is where it's like finding new ways to wrap my also from finding new ways to be a greater songwriter and finding new ways to be a great well those moments when you give
over to it like this is what I mean um All My Presidents are black there are moments when you relinquish and you know the journey enough to stay rooted in one place just a little more yeah yeah yeah and it's like your best work yeah yeah thank God thank you thank you because it's just deeper yeah and it means more that means more for me yes for real how are you gonna do this life I have no idea it's so exciting though yeah it's really
exciting and I mean what a picture to paint it's funny as well because I remember one time I was in the gym and someone was asking about the album and they're like yeah man I hope they said something about yeah I hope you got that
more bangers to like for the stage or something and when he said I thought this is really interesting because I have not thought about a live show at one point during the album I just created and just expressed it and looked
back and I was like I got this body of work and I have no idea how this translates live but again the God I serve isn't gonna make this album and then put me in some difficult position to talk it's gonna be it's going to be an a phenomenal but this isn't just a reflection of the journey so far like it's not it's not like you're a different person you couldn't have made this album without all the all the all the music and the shows and the
experience you'd had prior 100 yeah so it's just it's just how you order it yeah it's all the same it's all the same theater production a live show is just a expression of the art in it it's about saying this is my art this is
my album yeah and here's the live experience that goes with it you know I mean and it will be phenomenal as it always has been a song like I got my smile back it's a major moment a milestone for you just as a human being to acknowledge
that um it hasn't always been success hasn't always brought you what you wanted and it's something different I mean just an open question about that song like what that song means to you where it came from ultimately what you're saying to yourself um that was the last song we made for the for the record and if I remember riding in the street I was with browse with a couple of demanding and we had this jacob Collier sample who is
ridiculous by the way it shows up on this album the best was my guy man the way to describe him he's so generous with his gift he is so generous with me so even the way that sample came was I said to him one time at OC Island when we done the camp I said yo I was like yo Jacob um could you give me two Melodies that we can sample from I wanted one to make that some kind of that's some dark rap like not not dark rap in terms of
actual Darkness but in terms of just some more haunting a little minor case yeah like a horn in sample that we could have flicked in and like Fuji's tattoo yeah you know like yeah yeah and and I said could you also just give me a
beautiful one like a r b type one and he came back downstairs he said yeah cool he's going upstairs came back downstairs well maybe 20 minutes later half hour later and just said I've got and played it and it was like you're insane
so we had this sample for Asia and it was so beautiful and so rich that we didn't know what to do with it but we finished the record and then I still had the sample and I was like no we gotta flip this and then we tried a couple things and then p2j and Casa they flicked it and even when I started writing it I was in studio and I was like okay this is special and then everyone was just chilling and it was waiting for me to finish and I spat it
back and I'll never forget because brow was filming me it was just and yeah everyone's reaction was just like yo that yeah that really resonated like and what I've had to do with my with my reps on this album and just in general and it's the greatest place I've been at since I was a kid in terms of there's such a freedom to when I rap because I overstand how gifted I am at rapping so I I never rap to like show Zane I can rap yeah I just rap
because it's that I'm I'm incredible at this I'm gifted at this and I don't have a point to prove at this so be free with it well it creates a different purpose it creates a whole different purpose so bad blood is a perfect example of that and I got my smile back because bad blood when I first heard that instrumental yeah everything in me wanted to it's like do all my moves on it and I and then I was just like no I just feel
so that's why when it starts I ain't gonna lie you've been going hard and you shine bright you could glow in dark side by side like you know as in all the moves I can do on that Rhythm it weren't about that it's about
catch your pocket and fill but then I feel like that's what that was the purpose of Mel I feel like Mal you gave us the album people think you're gonna give us in seven minutes okay and that's and even it's the funny thing with Mel as well I
swear to God because I had this conversation shout out my brother Tech he said to me like you made that for the for for the hip-hop heads and I was like no I didn't you know and he was and he was basically oxen oh do I have a pen
for like my hip-hop pen a radio pen and I was like bro I swear to God any pen you've ever heard from me is the same pen I've never I don't have a premeditated pen like oh this is going to be a radio lyrical this is one it's
just like how good can I make this how how much does this come from my spirit and yeah I said to him what Mel made me do it is I swear to God that is just fun that is me or my dog walk in the morning yeah hearing the Rhythm talking to my cousin Jermaine who's like my creative partner and just having for that is that is the definition of yo yo saying come here this lyric and put my arm around you and gang like that that is all that is there
there is no ego on that song as much as this yeah that's the equivalent of like imagine Messi with a ball doing kick-ups yeah yeah totally he's not he's not here to score he's not here to like like he's just doing kick-ups he's got his ball
he's having a blast yeah you can't hear it yeah that's what's so compelling about it man when you listen to that song over and over again like it's the I actually look forward to the pauses and to the noises and to the and
the self-realization it's gonna do the punch lines exactly the minutes where you talk about you're needing the million and you're like oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because that's I think that's an insight into who you are in the corridor before we start exactly yeah yeah yeah you're making those noises with your friends in your room you've mentioned these words throughout this conversation we started the conversation with them and they keep
popping up just naturally so I wanted to know what these three words mean to you now at this point in your life starting with freedom freedom Freedom means to me and and Freedom's a funny one because I talk about this a lot with with my brothers Freedom that a lot of people think they have is not true freedom in the sense of creatively anyway I'm not talking that politically or just that yeah I'm talking creatively freedom for me is
I like this this feels good I'm doing it and a lot of the time like people can think freedom is rooted in the labels or the establishment or radio and I say that's not Freedom no that's almost the opposite that's the opposite
of Freedom that's fighting for your freedom it's not freedom because now you're making decisions with attitude of this that's not freedom freedom is I'm doing this because I want to do it do you know what I mean so I've really had
to like stand in decisions I'm making and I always make sure my decisions aren't rooted in ego and they're not rooted in like some sort of rebellion it's just that no does this feel good it's not about for example it's not about Mel made me do it be in seven minutes it was never to say yeah I'm rapping for seven minutes or firing water is gonna be that long and we're gonna we're gonna put two songs together because it's not about that as soon as
you start doing that that's not freedom freedom is That Yo that song is eight minutes because it felt good or that song we just let the guitar riff run because it felt good and I smacked like this because it felt good so even bad
blood that that felt good to breathe on a rhythm like that let it breathe and then go again and they say it felt good that's what freedom is to me now creatively when it feels good just make sure you're it's rooted in a pure cause
yeah what about bravery bravery for me is feeling being brave is to fill especially like as black cute slack and I don't want to make this like a political thing about a slack we grew up not feeling and we grew up feeling but we grew up having to mask those feelings and like disguise them to to survive and to navigate but bravery for me is feeling I feel like this today I feel sad today I feel great today I feel strong today I feel weak
today I feel sensitive today I feel tough that Brave read for me is feeling and feeling unashamedly like yeah well the third word was feeling feeling my favorite word especially that when it comes to my heart like just Spirit man
not what resonates with your spirit like and I thank God because what I've noticed is whatever makes me feel will make someone else feel before maybe I cared about lack I want I want everyone to feel this and now I don't care it's
like I want someone to feel feel it I love music I love music as in like the way something can make me feel the way a chord can make me feel the way a flow can make me feel the way a lyric can make me feel like I always say I just
want to make someone feel the way Stevie made me feel the main the way Whitney made me feel the way Frank made me feel the way jiggers made me feel the way Kanye has made me feel the way Drake's made me feel the way Kendrick's made me
feel do you know what I mean like as in whether it's a lyric or a chord or an ad-lib like even me and Brad got this thing that sometimes there's a BV in the back there's an ad-lib and it comes and I'll wait the whole three minutes and you get at the end and it's like the way Lauren makes you feel the way Lauren makes me feel like the way Lauren makes me feel do you get what I mean like like even recently what's the song I've been
listening to uh Monica Martin go easy kid this is a song that I've heard on shuffle and I've been listening to it I I get very um possessive over songs I would rinse the same song for a week and I just heard this song on shuffle I was like what beautiful song is this really nice this really resonates in my spirit clear Soul mother that album believable that album is Sensational breathtaking and just makes me feel like if I leave here and I get
in the car and I put it on I just feel like and in that moment I'm just feeling careful man it sounds like the return of hashtag murky right now that sounds like to me you never know my brother how can you not believe in
magic man I cannot believe in magic bro this conversation has been just that for me the album is magic thank you and you've just given over to it man and uh just congratulations thank you very much thank you man thank you bro I'm happy [Music]