Stormzy previews new album with delicate lead single ‘Hide & Seek’

Stormzy has shared his new single ‘Hide & Seek’, the first preview of his upcoming third album ‘This Is What I Mean’ – check it out below.

‘This Is What I Mean’, the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Heavy Is The Head’, was announced earlier this week and will land on November 25. Its announcement followed Stormzy’s comeback last month with the non-album single ‘Mel Made Me Do It’.

The rapper’s third album is described as “an intimate love letter to music” which was created at a “Stormzy music camp” on Osea Island in the Essex estuary.

Stormzy said of the new album’s creation in a statement: “When you hear about music camps they always sound intense and sombre. People saying: ‘We need to make an album.’ ‘We need to make some hit records.’

“But this felt beautifully free. We’re all musicians but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the bi-product to that was very beautiful music.

“Because when you marry that ethos with world class musicians and the best producers, writers and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.”

Listen to ‘Hide & Seek’ in the above video.

‘This Is What I Mean’ will be released globally on November 25 via 0207 Def Jam, and is available to pre-order here.

Last month (September 23), Stormzy shared his first solo outing in almost three years with ‘Mel Made Me Do It’.

The track arrived alongside an 11-minute music video directed by KLVDR, fusing multiple storylines and showcasing over 35 cameos.

Among those include the likes of Jose Mourinho, Dave, Headie One, Little Simz, Louie Theroux, Malorie Blackman and Usain Bolt, while the track also features a monologue by Wretch 32 (narrated by actress and I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel).

The post Stormzy previews new album with delicate lead single ‘Hide & Seek’ appeared first on NME.