A brief history of how Stormzy won 2017

2017 has been a tough year. Brexit, the seemingly relentless stream of terror attacks, an unnecessary election, the continuing existence of Donald Trump and countless other little things that just fucking suck. Honestly, it's been a lot.

But you know who's had a pretty good year? Stormzy. Not only has he had his debut album absolutely SMASH it, he's collabbed with Ed Sheeran, finished a sold-out world tour and in the process became one of the best voices on the internet.

Unlike so many other celebrities (looking at you, JK Rowling) when Stormzy comments on stuff in the news, it doesn't grate on you. He's not writing worthy, 2000 word opinions in the New Statesmen, he's talking to real people on their level about issues they actually care about.

Stormzy isn't talking down to real people, because he is real people. Maybe it's because he's still on the up, maybe it's because he had pretty humble beginnings, maybe it's just because he's Stormzy, but he has a way of interacting with his fans that doesn't feel like he's a million miles above them.

So why not relive all the little ways that Stormzy has smashed it this year?

When he called out Met Police on their bullshit

Imagine being one of the most famous recording artists in the UK, making a nice bit of money and getting a house in a pretty nice area of London. Imagine then that the Met decided to break down your door because your neighbours thought you were burgling your own house. Pretty bullshit right? Apart from smashing in Stormzy's door, they also tweeted out some pretty dog-whistle racist stuff in the build up to Notting Hill.

You could argue that slagging off a police force on Twitter doesn't actually change anything, but the fact that they couldn't intimidate Stormzy even after they smashed in his door, is pretty sick.

Oxford students named him their person of the year

Stormzy has long been proud of supporting Black students in higher education and he was honored by the Oxford ACS for "amazing contributions" to society.

According to Oxford uni, Stormzy told students at the conference in London: "I think it's easy for the public to look at footballers, rappers and entertainers and see us as the epitome of black excellence, but I feel that it's actually you guys. At the end of uni, you lot are becoming the doctors and lawyers, the medical scientists."

When he had a go at an Irish paper for confusing him with Romelu Lukaku

There's probably nothing more casually racist than confusing two people from completely different backgrounds and professions just because they're both black. Yeah, Stormzy is a Man U fan and yeah he doesn't look a million miles from Lukaku, but the Irish Herald was rightly skewered for not being woke enough for 2017.

When he paid for his fan's postgrad at Harvard

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Kinda goes without saying, but this was pretty sick. It's rare to see someone give back to their fans, and to be honest, I rate her for getting him back with Nando's.

When he called Theresa May a paigon

It's been a rough year for Theresa May. It can't be easy going into work knowing that not only your colleagues, but most of the general public think you're a waste of space. Now, the GQ awards aren't exactly PMQs, but still, getting called a Paigon by someone far more popular than you, can't feel great.

When he killed it in the Grenfell song

Who doesn't love a good charity single? Even if the song is shit, it's usually worth it for the cause alone. In this case, not only was the cause incredibly important, Stormzy's verse was a fucking BANGER.

When NME made him a cover star without his permission

Remember when NME was a credible music magazine? Remember when it wasn't next to Metro in the freebie racks on the Tube? Nah, me either. Anyway, they did the very not cool thing of trying to re-use quotes he'd given someone else to s̶e̶l̶l̶give away more of their bummout magazines, and so he told them to fuck off.

When he made a cameo on Love Island

Yeah it was trash but Love Island was inescapable this summer, so obviously Stormzy was a huge fan. You wouldn't see any other huge grime stars on such a mainstream show, and some would say that means Stormzy is selling out, but fuck that because Love Island was everyone's guilty pleasure.

When he CAME THROUGH for a fan who lied trying to impress his mum

Look, we've all been there. When your mum asks if you've been networking or picked a dissertation topic or have started doing laundry yet, it's easy to tell her a little white lie to put her mind at ease. I've done it more times than I care to mention. The worst part is that your mum will inevitably find out that you're both a shit human and a liar, so I can only imagine how much this guy rated Stormzy stepping in.

Oh yeah and he also recorded a number one album and collabbed on one of the best songs of the year (and outshone Ed Sheeran)

Makes you feel kinda guilty for having a shit year right?