- Yo, British GQ. My name's Stormzy.
And today I'm going undercover on the internet.
Let me learn how to open a laptop first.
[bright music]
Ed Sheeran, 'Take Me Back to London' featuring Stormzy.
Love the song. But what is the actual meaning behind it?
Taking us back to London.
Yeah. That's the meaning. [laughs]
I dunno... [stammers]
Take us back to London, innit?
That's...
We wanna go home.
Does Stormzy have a cockney accent?
Uh...
I don't know. Do I?
No, I ain't got...
I dunno, maybe.
No, no I don't.
A bit. [laughs]
[bright music]
I worked in quality assurance for two years
at an oil refinery in Southampton, Hampshire.
To be fair, I've always, I've said it a lot.
I was just blagging it.
It was an office job but then as I progressed,
they wanted me to go out onto site.
So quality assurance is in the name, innit?
You're assuring quality.
All the lads there were, they're brilliant at their job.
They were welders and riggers.
And I was just this kid who went through an apprenticeship
and they've put us on site.
But these people have been doing this all their lives
and I was meant to go there and check their work.
I just used to go there and say...
Thumbs up, mate. I'm sure you're fucking smashing it.
To all the quality assurance engineers out there,
I'm not worthy to be considered as one of you.
[bright music]
Stormzy and Raymond Blanc make pistachio souffle.
British GQ.
I wonder if Stormzy has been inspired
to learn any other recipes after shooting this.
No I haven't. I'm an awful chef.
But I thank God I have an amazing chef
who goes by the name of Chef Vickz.
Chef Vickz. Big up yourself a thousand times.
I've made dinner on a date once. I made some prawns.
To be fair, Vic prepared them.
I just done the final fry, the final...
It was a really cute date as well.
We was eating chocolate from each other's plate.
It was very romantic.
I've only done it once.
Hopefully I'll do it again at some point in life.
How do I get in touch with Stormzy? You can't.
And I'm not saying that sounding rude, like diva-ish.
There's not a way that don't sound rude.
And whoever said this, I do love you and appreciate you.
And if you ever see me, salute me, big up,
we'll have a chat.
But, um...
Nah.
No.
And I have more reasons for that as well.
You know what I mean?
[bright music]
Stormzy fanboying over Billie Eilish is the cutest thing
I've seen in the world.
I think anyone who knows me knows I'm a massive fan of her
and her art and just her as a person as well.
She's an amazing person.
I met her at The Brit Awards. I was quite drunk.
Anyone who knows me when I'm drunk, I'm a little bit much.
And I approached her and just overloaded her with like,
you're the greatest.
Billie's got a special place in my heart. I love Billie.
That's why you saw me fanboying. [laughs]
I want a Stormzy album so bad.
Well, you're gonna get one.
The album that I thought I was gonna make
and the album that I set out to make,
I said, yeah, man's gonna make this album.
God just said, you're going down there.
And any artist will relate to this.
Sometimes what we think and what ends up happening
is two total different things.
I was a lot more still and a lot more clear
of what I'm feeling and what I was going through.
It was like therapy. I just let out whatever was in me.
So many cameos in this video. Must've been mad on set.
Yeah, it was mad. Yeah.
Big up everyone in the video
who lent us their time and energy.
Because yeah, it was mad on set.
When I was with Jose on the day, it was so sick,
because I was really nervous.
'Cause it's The Special One, you know what I mean?
And he's come down
and he had to do something straight after.
Of course, he's a busy man
and I thought he might just be there for 10 minutes
and say, yo, I got to dip.
But he stood there and we'll do a take and we'll do a take,
and he'll turn around to me and say,
is that how you want it?
And I'll be like, yeah, you're doing it.
He's like, are you sure? Like, how'd you want me to?
And I was like, nah, Jose, you're smashing it.
He's like, no.
Like, we're not leaving here until it's right.
And I was like, this is why you are a bad boy.
We gotta make this the best. That was his actual words.
And I was like, yo, I hear you, my guy. Let's do it.
This is the byproduct of when we dare to be great
and when we challenge each other
and when we're committed to making great art.
Even a lot of these scenes were a final pickup day
where we saw the video and was like, no, we need more.
Michaela Coel's poem in the middle
that was written by Wretch 32,
which is one of my favorite parts of the video.
Michaela was in Milan for fashion week
and Callum, my engineer...
Big up Callum, Big Cal from the south side,
had to fly to Milan the day before the video came out
to record Michaela doing the spoken word
and then send it to the director.
So that was the final thing
that had to get put in the video,
which made us push it back an hour back and I wasn't gone.
Phoning everyone like, trying to keep calm.
Like, yo, video's not out.
And then it came out. And to God be the glory.
How is his skin so flawless? How?
Big up, my mom.
Ghanaians, I feel like we got rich history of melanin
and blackness, you know?
And actually you're gonna like this.
This year I started a skincare routine.
I've got a little routine that I'll be showing you
at some point in the future, maybe.
But yeah, mostly I would say it's 90% from my mum
and from the rich soil of Accra.
My name's Stormzy. Thank you for watching.
Big up yourself.
Love, respect. You don't know.
Cool.
Close the laptop.
Bye.