LONDON • Stormzy did not have a moment to waste. He accelerated into a sharp left at a busy London intersection as a traffic light flashed to red, sending the prayer beads dangling from the steering console of his Lamborghini flying.
On a mild December afternoon, the 26-year-old British music sensation - who has been recording nimble, temperature-taking rap and grime for six years - was late for a talk organised by one of his nonmusical enterprises, his Penguin Random House imprint #Merky Books.
The event was taking place at a school that had expelled Stormzy as a teenager for a series of minor disciplinary issues, so he knew the winding route well enough to chat and hum along to Top 40 radio while gliding across lanes and overtaking a double-decker bus.
When he arrived, his black car was quickly surrounded by a sea of students in burgundy blazers. He opened the door to screams.
In Britain, Stormzy is both a pop idol and an avatar for his nation's discontents. With a crisp flow, leftist political bent and wildly catchy hooks, he is adored by figures as diverse as politician Jeremy Corbyn and singer Adele. He performed at her birthday in July.
While grime can be powered by anti-establishment fury, its MC battles and up-from-the-bootstraps record labels also foster community and create scaffolding for black British expression.
In Stormzy, grime has found its poster boy. A lone wolf without a core crew or mentor, he lassoed social media to help his breakout track from 2015, the wisecracking freestyle Shut Up, reach the British Top 10.
His sound opened further to soul, trap and gospel on his debut album from 2017, Gang Signs & Prayer.
It was the first independently released record to reach the top of the British album chart.
While scores of British rock bands, pop acts and soul singers have made the leap to mainstream success in the United States, the path for rappers and grime MCs has been far more challenging.
A few names broke out in indie circles in the 2000s (Dizzee Rascal, The Streets), while others (Skepta, Slowthai) have been building momentum in the past 10 years.
Stormzy's new album, Heavy Is The Head, has a depth and sheen that may be more appealing to an expanded American audience, while retaining the cadence and wit that first endeared him to British fans.
Next year, his tour will reach four continents, including a month of shows in the US - the longest time he will have spent promoting in the country.
"It's a very specific task in getting my music how I need it to sound," Stormzy said. "Which is British, but also international, but also very black and soulful and slapping."
While cracking the crowded American rap market will be challenging, Stormzy's team is hopeful.
"Boundaries don't exist anymore," said Mr Michael Kyser, president of black music at Atlantic Records, which is releasing the album in partnership with Stormzy's #Merky imprint, the label arm of his #Merky empire.
He added: "Hip-hop is a genre that brings people of all backgrounds together and we plan on helping Stormzy continue that mission around the world, including in the US."
Stormzy has shared stages with rapper Kanye West and pop icon Ed Sheeran, yet he thrives alone.
In June, he became the first black British solo artist to headline Glastonbury, the British music festival founded in 1970.
"I've set the bar," he said. "It gives me boundaries to soar over."
The workaholic Stormzy is rarely at home. He spent around two years working on Heavy Is The Head, which lets his musical curiosity off the leash, as grime takes a back seat to silky R&B, staccato hip-hop beats, radiant gospel and the love of pop that he broadcast with a 2014 Justin Bieber cover.
Reliable hitmakers - Paul Epworth (Adele, Coldplay), Frank Dukes (Lorde, Drake), Mark "Spike" Stent (Beyonce, Lady Gaga) - fill the credits and give Stormzy's LP a dynamic gloss in a clear sign of his expanding ambitions.
Over the past year, his vast aspirations have become clearer.
At Glastonbury, shirtless and dripping with sweat, he stopped his set to reel off the names of dozens of rising grime and British rap artists.
#Merky includes a summer festival in Ibiza and a record label with two artists, now in development.
Stormzy had hoped to launch a #Merky TV arm to commission an adaptation of his favourite book, Malorie Blackman's novel Noughts & Crosses, but the BBC beat him to the rights. He will star in the spring 2020 series, his first major acting role.
"You know how Jay-Z has Roc Nation Sports, management, everything?" he said. "One day, I want to have that.
"I'm trying to push those boundaries. I'm trying to make it better than anything that's come before."
NYTIMES
