The British grime artist is an icon in his homeland, with two best-sellingalbums to his name and a heaving trophy cabinet, which includes six MOBOAwards, an MTV Europe Award, and the 2020 BET, Hip-Hop Award for bestinternational flow.
Born Michael Owuo in Croydon, south of London, the rapper, producer, and musician has topped the Official UK Albums Chart with both of his releases to date, Gang Signs & Prayer (2017) and Heavy Is The Head (2019), with the former earning a Mercury Prize nomination.
He became the first solo Black British artist to headline the Glastonbury Festival in 2019, a moment captured for the documentary Stormy: Road to the Pyramid Stage, which premiered this month on BBC One.
Outside of music, he is an outspoken opponent of social injustice, and in 2020, he established the #Merky Foundation, pledging E10 million ($12.5 million) over ten years to organizations and charities dedicated to combating racial inequality, justice reform, and Black empowerment.
Stormy’s #Merky brand includes an imprint within Penguin Random House U.K., and he established The Stormzy Scholarship, an annual studentship to fund Black British students attending the University of Cambridge.
He was recently awarded an honorary degree by the University of Exeter for his “outstanding achievement” in higher education, philanthropy, and widening participation.Stormzy is still represented by Tobe Onwuka, the co-founder of #Merky.
