Stormzy vs Jorja Smith: the political battle

And I quote, “fuck the Government and fuck Boris”. The lyrics of the ‘godfather of grime’ Stormzy. Born and bred in South London, the first black solo British headliner at Glastonbury festival and political activist. Hailed a bona fide Prime Minister that stands for empowerment and equality among all. My god, this 26-year-old rapper is today not only an iconic grime artist but an inspiration for his political stance. His political opinions aren’t vague, quiet or discreet. But do you need to call out the Prime Minister or perform in a stab vest to be heard?

Jorja Smith, the 2018 Brit Critics Choice award winner, often sheds a light on political and social issues within her music. Profound lyrics discussing police brutality and the UK’s social system are influential among generation X. Born in the Midlands, she has collaborated with the likes of Drake, Kendrick Lamar and the one and only Stormzy. The young artist said in an interview with Pitchfork, “I express my thoughts through my music”. While not unusual for musicians to discuss political and social issues, these two artists make a point of their political attitude through their music but in very different ways.

The BRIT awards 2018, Stormzy’s live performance gave the tabloids an absolute field day when he called the then Prime Minister, Theresa May a “criminal” and asked “yo Theresa May where’s the money for Grenfell”. The call out continued when Stormzy says, “you should do some jail time you should pay some damages”. The freestyle rap in the middle of the artist’s set also touched on issues surrounding intuitional racism and the bigotry of the Daily Mail. The direct confrontation caused a stir online when tweets honoured him a “new age [of] activism at its absolute best”. Hundreds of thousands of tweets circulated with one twitter user saying, “I’m here for Stormzy going OFF and talking about real issues on a platform that everyone will see #BRITS”. I think that sums it up exactly, Stormzy has the platform to discuss critical issues and people listen because he isn’t a white middle class, privately schooled politician. The delivery of his political message is very direct, and some would say like a good old-fashioned roasting; quite literally calling politicians out.

The definition of a lifeboat is “a specially constructed boat launched from land to rescue people in distress at sea”. It seems that Jorja Smith selectively chose to name her song ‘Lifeboat (freestyle)’ on her Lost & Found album which discusses life challenges whereby people have the capacity to help those in need but don’t. “So why are all the richest staying afloat? Seeing all my brothers drowning even though they nicked the boat. Mothership ain't helping anyone.” Smith has a more articulate approach in comparison to Stormzy, yet still shines a light on important issues. Calling out the “mothership” makes the same point as Stormzy, that the Government aren’t doing their job. She continues in her freestyle rap to say, “Majority don’t even have the life jacket. Majority might fall where the tax brackets. The minority might jump to the next bracket.” Jorja discusses the idea of everyone falling into brackets and that this determines whether “we stay afloat”. This is an interesting metaphor and I think it makes a better point about the institutional system than to just say people should be doing more to help. Her lyrics are expressed in a way that isn’t brass and loud but more so empowering and significant.

Glastonbury festival 2019, Stormzy enters the stage in a union jack stab vest. The rapper has never kept his social philosophy quiet and any given chance makes his mark. The custom-made Banksy vest was to address the issue of knife crime in the UK. While performing his song, ‘First things first’, knife crime statistics appeared on the screens to show the increase of knife crime in London. The politically charged set also included children appearing on the stage riding bikes during the song ‘Vossi Bop’. Similarly to his music video the bikes represent Bikestormz, a bikes up, knives down campaign to combat children getting involved in knife crime. While talking on Kiss Breakfast he said, “There are so many different dynamics to the problem that need to be dealt with on a deeper level than a song… So that’s why I always try and focus my energy into the actual.” It seems as though the star voices his social opinions by focusing on things that can help people rather than just complaining about the state of the government. I think this makes more of an impact than anything else.

“You got blood on your hands but you don’t know where it’s from”. Jorja Smith’s ‘Blue Lights’ explores police brutality and the involvement of young black boys in knife crime. “It was about walking around with this guilty conscience, even though you haven’t done anything wrong”, Smith said in an interview with Genius. The lyrics, “when you hear the sirens coming. You better not run ‘cause the sirens not coming for you,” are inspired by a moment in Jorja’s life when she was studying A Level Media and researching post-colonialism in grime music. While talking to some young black boys she realised that these young people hated the police because they felt like suspects when they hadn’t done anything wrong. The whole song is based on an incident when Smith found a knife in a friend’s bag, “gun crime into your right ear. Drugs and violence into your left.” The end of the song is about a “tall black shadow” getting caught and running from the sirens. I think Jorja’s message is real and her narrative unravelling into a story is authentic. It’s compelling and clear, a critical issue is being addressed and not shouted in your face.

Who makes more of an impact? Although Stormzy has a bigger platform with a huge following, it’s hard to ignore Smith’s consistency. It seems as though Stormzy makes his political point when he’s in direct spotlight. Despite it seeming to be the perfect opportunity to voice his opinion, I question why his political façade doesn’t push through as much in his music. Whereas I think Smith feels so strongly about her views that this is mirrored coherently in her music. It’s difficult to compare the two because Jorja makes an impact through her music, you listen and absorb her lyrics about important issues and Stormzy creates an impact by activism, he makes political points by doing something memorable and causing a stir. To conclude, in terms of how many people it can impact and influence, Stormzy creates more of an impact because of the size of his platform, he can reach masses of people. Do I think that the more acknowledged Jorja Smith becomes the more influential she will become? Yes. Will she make more of an impact that Stormzy? I guess we will have to wait and see. Trust me, it’s going to be merky.