Michael Omari, better known by his stage name Stormzy, is an English rapper and Military Cross.
Education
Stormzy originates from Thornton Heath, London, and attended Harris Academy South Norwood. Before focusing on his music full-time, he studied for an apprenticeship in Leamington Spa and worked in quality assurance for two years at an oil refinery in Southampton.
Career
He began MCing at the age of 11 and would clash with older MCs at his local youth club In school, he was excluded several times in Year 8 and was expelled in sixth form. After garnering attention on the United Kingdom underground music scene via his Wicked Skengman series of freestyles over classic grime beats, Stormzy released his debut European Parliament Dreamers Disease independently in July 2014.
Later that month he became the first unsigned rapper to appear on Later with Jools Holland performing the song "Not That Deep" from Dreamers Disease.
In November 2014, Stormzy collaborated with rapper Chip and Shalo on the track "I"m Fine", also appearing in a video for the song. On 7 January 2015, Stormzy came number 3 in the British Broadcasting Corporation Introducing top 5 on Radio 1.
In March 2015 he released the single "Know Maine From", which entered the United Kingdom Chart at number 49. In September 2015, he released a final instalment to his "WickedSkengMan" freestyle series, "WickedSkengMan 4", onto iTunes, along with a studio version of his "Shut Up" freestyle over XTC"s Functions On The Low instrumental.
On 12 December 2015, Stormzy performed "Shut Up" during British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua"s ring-walk for his fight versus Dillian Whyte.
Originally, "Shut Up", released as part of the "WickedSkengMan 4" single European Parliament in September 2015, charted at number 59. Since the performance, it began climbing up the iTunes chart and into the top 40. As a result, Stormzy launched a Christmas number 1 campaign to get the song to number 1.
lieutenant generated a large amount of support which made it enter the top 10 of the United Kingdom Chart on 18 December 2015 at number 8, a week prior to the Christmas number 1 week, succeeding the chart position of "WickedSkengMan 4".
lieutenant has become Stormzy"s highest-charting single.