This is a good time to have Stormzy appearing on your single.
While grime’s breakout star rides high in the charts with his debut album, he could well be on an additional hit with Jon Bellion, a New Yorker who’s aiming to replicate the success he has already enjoyed in the US.
A new version of Bellion’s single All Time Low, with a Stormzy guest rap, is out today. The song places Bellion as an American Bastille or a one-man Twenty One Pilots – he makes a restless mix of pop, rock, electronica and hip hop that might be an unholy mess if it wasn’t for his sweet voice and grasp of a great tune.
Though he’s new over here, early adopters have had plenty of time to get to know him. He co-wrote two huge hits – Jason Derulo’s Trumpets and the Rihanna and Eminem duet The Monster – and gave away four mixtapes for free online between 2011 and 2014 before sending his debut album proper, The Human Condition, into the US top five last summer.
So he’ll have plenty of songs to choose from when he plays at Shepherd’s Bush Empire next month, his first step towards a storm of approval from Londoners.
April 6, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, W12 (0844 477 2000, o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk)