Stormzy tells Cambridge to shut up

On Monday night The Oxford Guild welcomed yet another huge speaker to the university. Following in the footsteps of Kanye West and Lil Jon, multi-award winning Grime artist Stormzy graced the city of dreaming spires to talk to students about his career and inspirations. Among questions ranging from sexism to the use of the “N” word, Stormzy announced “fuck Cambridge, man.”

Stormzy likened a career on the music scene to studying for a degree at Oxford; “people think it’s great that you’re doing it, but rarely understand the hard work that goes on behind the surface”. He also said that if he wasn’t making music, he’d love to have been sitting in the place of the students, listening to some other Grime MC speaking, as his dream was to study Political Science at Oxford.

The question and answer session lasted approximately an hour and a half, with questions ranging from the light-hearted (he said his favourite shoes were Adidas Crepes) to the controversial. When broached with the topic of sexism, the artist made an appeal encouraging “any MCs watching, stop cussing girls!” then insisting that he’d “speak to the grime massive”. However, it was clear Stormzy was serious about wanting his position to be a positive one, insisting that he felt he owed a duty as a human being, rather than a role model, to raise awareness for particular problems and to help others.

He also pledged to stop using the “N” word in tracks. When asked for his opinion on it being used in lyrics, he said: “I’m the worst for it. It’s not cool, I’m trying to stop because it’s lazy as an MC. It’s become like a thing to flow in as a lyric filler. The word is way too horrible to be used so casually.” He then went on to compare it to smoking, laughing that by comparison it shouldn’t be something that’s hard to stop.

Posing for pics

When addressing the issue of a lack of diversity at the Brits, Stormzy admitted that times are changing. He said, having spoken to the “top guy” at the Brits, he was becoming more aware that it was a lack of diversity on the voting panel that was the real cause of concern; as he put it, a panel of middle-aged white men might not know much about “little Stormzy from South London”. However, he insisted that people are beginning to recognise that there is more to the British music scene than One Direction and Little Mix, and hopefully the awards ceremony would soon reflect this. (He also pointed out that he loves listening to Adele!)

The high-profile MC admitted to having an insanely packed schedule, having flown in from Austria only one night before the event. Yet this didn’t stop him engaging with the students, with one freestyling for him and another encouraging him to perform a capella. He also insisted that his success was largely down to his faith in God, and the support of those around him, in particular his mum, Abigail, who accompanied him to the event.

This guy free-styled for Stormzy

Thousands of students balloted for the event, which was moved to a larger location at St Catherine’s College in an attempt to meet some of the demand. Those that were lucky enough to gain a place were gifted some of the artist’s words of wisdom; being a decent human being, a polite person and a family man is far more important than being ‘the best,’ you should never let anyone get in the way of your dreams, and Oxford is obviously way better than Cambridge.