Stormzy’s Ad Spot Was The BRIT Awards Most Important Moment

It was an electrifying display of sheer power...

The BRIT Awards has never been a fun experience. The focal point for an aspect of the music industry where the worth of sales far outstrip the meaning of artistry, it has a tendency to rejoice in the humdrum, to elevate the mediocre.

Last night promised much but delivered little. Grime’s commercial ascendency secured a flurry of nominations, with Skepta, Stormzy, and Kano all lining up in important sections of the ceremony only to be knocked down time and time again.

Kano’s magnificent ‘Made In The Manor’ lost out yet again, having fallen at the final Mercury hurdle. Stormzy made do with an admittedly magnetic guest spot alongside Ed Sheeran, while Skepta’s performance was bleeped out by ITV. Oddly, host Dermot O’Leary’s own swear words were allowed through the filter.

It was easy to become distracted. But Stormzy’s ad clip for his new album – a brief 30 second Spotify-sculpted display of sheer power – was absolutely, completely electrifying. And it demonstrated in a matter of seconds why the BRITs in its current format can never hope to embrace grime… and why that simply doesn’t matter.

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These awards are trinkets, an almost arbitrary recognition of economics. It was patently absurd of the BRITs to place Skepta in the Breakthrough category, having spent more than a decade in the trenches, repping grime even the initial success of the first wave dissipated.

It was a move that placed Skepta against Stormzy, and arguably split grime’s vote. Rag N’ Bone Man was cast as the villain, despite being a perfectly likeable bloke who spent years working in rundown studios, supplying backing vocals to some serious talent from the UK hip-hop scene. He’s done his dues, and deserves some measure of plaudits.

But it’s the wider context that seemed to rankle some onlookers. A white artist working in an area spearheaded by people of colour, his recognition while black artists waited on the sidelines seemed to underline just why the music industry can’t get to grips with the shock-waves under its feet.

In the past 18 months it’s become clear that once again some of the most important, most successful music being created by British artists is happening in a completely different universe from the major label system. Skepta was able to walk into RED Essential with ‘Konnichiwa’ under his arm, and dictate the terms of its release. Wiley was granted unprecedented freedom by Parlophone to piece together a who’s-who of grime on ‘Godfather’, and watched as it flew into the Top Ten. Boy Better Know became genuine festival headline contenders, a rite of passage for adolescents of every creed, colour, and religion.

And Stormzy was able to release a freestyle and send it into the Top Ten. The rapper will release his debut album ‘Gangs Signs & Prayer’ on Friday (February 24th) after some seismic shows, some stellar guest appearances, and the Met Police kicking down his door because his white neighbours assumed he was breaking into his own house.

Which is why his ad is such a potent, such a complete seizure of power. If the music industry ignores him, he can outspend them. If they don’t give him an award, he can simply supersede them in importance. The ad – produced in conjunction with Spotify – seemed to both reflect and accentuate the ruptures happening in British music right now.

Not only is the current major label system in question, it’s doubtful as to whether artists need any kind of label representation at all. Grime emerged from the streets, from a sometimes chaotic but always insanely productive network of pirate radio stations, producers, DJ, and MCs. The music industry has always failed to understand this – famously, the first time Dizzee Rascal even set foot in West London was when he initially visited the XL Recordings office.

In turn, the BRITs have singularly failed to reflect the wider changes in British music. Not one grime artist picked up a trophy in last night’s event, as the promised wider representation quickly fizzled into an array of placid tributes and a yet another performance from Robbie Williams.

What’s interesting, though, is this: they can’t stop the culture that produced grime. Stormzy broke into the Top Ten with a self-released freestyle and kicked off a close-run campaign for Christmas number one with a single tweet. He’s a completely independent artist who can steal the BRIT Awards’ thunder with a 30 second promotion in the ad break. He’s unstoppable. And that shouldn’t worry Stormzy – it should worry the BRIT Awards.

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'Gang Signs & Prayer' will be released on February 24th.

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