Stormzy breaks silence on Michael Gove tweet: ‘You lot picked the wrong f***ing rapper’
Grime star said the politician used a ‘weaponised tactic’ to ‘dismiss’ him
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Stormzy has broken his silence over a tweet in which Michael Gove appeared to mock the rapper’s lyrics.
The Conservative politician bizarrely quoted the grime star’s lyrics after Stormzy expressed his support for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn in the general election.
In an interview, Gove had told Talk Radio that Stormzy is “a far, far better rapper than he is a political analyst”.
Labour’s Angela Rayner then tweeted: “And Michael Gove is crap at both”, adding a winking emoji. To which Gove responded: “I set trends dem man copy.”
Now, Stormzy has responded to Gove’s tweet, saying he “picked the wrong f***ing rapper”.
“It’s the classic, ‘You’re just a rapper,’” he told the Observer Magazine, which he had guest edited. “Using ‘I set trends dem man copy’... No one was talking about that. I wasn’t talking about music, I wasn’t talking about ‘Shut Up’ – I was talking about politics. So him saying that is like he said: ‘Oh, no, forget politics. This is what he does. He’s a rapper.’ It’s a weaponised tactic.
“They do it to young people, they do it to black people, they do it to rappers, they do it to entertainers: ‘Just shut up and rap.’ Stay in your lane. It’s very telling of who these people are. As much as I’m a rapper, I’ve also done X, Y, Z. But they’re dismissing everything else. They just look at me and say: ‘No.’ They reduce us to whatever they need us to be and dismiss it.”
Stormzy – who gained six A*s in his GCSEs – then explained he is not bothered by the insults of politicians because he knows he is “intelligent”.
“So when they dismiss me it’s like, ‘You lot picked the wrong f***ing rapper,’” he said.
The rapper also told the magazine that he feared the country was going to “slaughter” him over the technical difficulties that affected his Glastonbury Festival performance, but he was “saved by God”.
Stormzy said he wanted to “cry so bad” when his in-ear monitors blew twice during the set. Although he did not know it at the time, his set was seen as a success, and he now believes that God helped save him – as well as muscle memory.
He said: “I was so ready for that show. I’ve never been more prepared for anything.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments