Musicians: the voice of the people

Lyrical music acts as a form of discursive activism (Luger, 2019), distributing explicit messages throughout its listeners. Stormzy has voiced his political opinions, social beliefs and mobilised the discussions of many British social challenges. His influence is dramatic, with grime music being described as just as ‘disruptive and powerful as punk’ (Roddis, 2017). As a creator, he has the ability to challenge and disrupt hegemonic social practices (Kollner and Denzer, 2019). In this way, Stormzy is leading the rebellion against social injustice.

The key message in Stormzy’s music is the critique of racial inequalities within society. He plays a key role within the creative class (Luger, 2019). He is a man whose creativity has been encouraged whilst growing up by the nation’s creative agendas and is now in a position to mobilise his views through this creativity (Luger, 2019). In this way, the creative cities agenda, implemented by many nations, has facilitated the critique of itself by those who it has empowered (Luger, 2019). He recognises his role and opportunistic platform as a world-famous grime artist to communicate the need for change. This is reflected in many of his songs including the lyrics of his hit release, One Second; “Mummy always said if there’s a cause then I should fight for it”. 

Music is not only a static form of creativity that is listened to, it also mobilises spaces through its performance. Headlining Glastonbury festival in 2019 is the perfect example of Stormzy utilising this opportunity to further engage his audience with key political issues. The stage became his ‘space of hope’ in which he performed a creative political demonstration (Kollner and Denzer, 2019). Along with a performance by ‘Ballet Black’, he also streamed David Lammy’s (Labour MP) speech in which he critiqued the current criminal justice system which disproportionately affects higher numbers of black, Asian and other minority ethnic people (Walker, 2019). Stormzy was able to, quite literally, make political discussion centre stage through his performance.

Harvey describes the contradictions between cultural practices and cultural commodities, specifically within the music industry (2012). Whilst the distribution of music facilitates the spread of political messages and movements, it is also a commodity that economically benefits the state (Harvey, 2010). Whilst Stormzy challenges the oppression enforced by political powers, he also simultaneously contributes towards their economic power through the distribution of his music. This begs to question the potential of grime music in making a positive difference against social inequalities amongst other challenges. 

The audience that Stormzy has inspired acts as proof of the impact of his music, whether this be through the new musicians he has launched into the public eye or the young writers of his ‘Merky Books’ campaign. They now form an artistic generation and have the capabilities to further resist oppression (Luger, 2019).  Stormzy will leave behind a legacy by inspiring his audience to continue his political mobilisation through their own forms of creativity.