Stormzy Returns With New Single ‘Hide & Seek’
‘This Is What I Mean’ is out November 25.
Stormzy has released “Hide & Seek,” the first official single taken from his upcoming album, This Is What I Mean, which is set for global release on November 25 via 0207 Def Jam/Interscope Records.
Produced by PRGRSHN and P2J, “Hide & Seek” features additional vocals from British singer Äyanna and Nigerian singers Oxlade (currently making waves after his viral hit “KU LO SA”), and Teni, providing an emotive, soulful, and ethereal offering.
Arriving alongside a beautiful visual directed by Meji Alabi, the video features British actress Saffron Hocking (best known for playing Lauren in the Netflix show Top Boy) and depicts Stormzy and Saffron as a couple in love. Together, they illustrate purity and the journey a young relationship often takes.
Earlier this week, Stormzy announced the album by returning to social media after a near three-year hiatus and unveiling the album’s poignant artwork; a letter, placed on a doorstep, emblazoned with the words ‘This Is What I Mean.’ The artwork also reveals the album’s tracklist.
With the release of his third album, Stormzy stands not only as one of Britain’s most accomplished rappers, but one of its most accomplished musicians of any genre and a cultural icon. With his new record, he’s delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing a number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between soul, hip-hop, and more.
A bold, brave, and courageous leap forward from his critically acclaimed previous two No.1 records, Gang Signs & Prayer and Heavy Is The Head, this isn’t music simply for the pop charts but rather an intimate love letter to music. It’s an album that showcases intensely personal and lyrical themes which lay bare the vulnerabilities, regret, frailties, healing, joy, and triumph.
The confidence which drove the album stemmed from a deeper and far more spiritual place than we have seen from Stormzy previously. For all the success and awards that he has accrued during his brief, meteoric career, the lockdown that ensued from the coronavirus pandemic gave him one commodity he’d long lacked: time. And thanks to his sense of accomplishment following Glastonbury he was, for the first time, in a position to make the most of it.
