Why Gang Signs& Prayer is so important

I'm aware i'm about a month late to the Gang Signs & Prayer hype,but that's due to the fact I've spent the past month  listening to it on repeat,because who knew a grime album could make you feel at least a hundred different emotions in the space of an hour.

I was first aware of  the wonder that is Stormzy about a year and half ago when my Spotify decided to play me WickedSkengMan 4 (yes i am a cheapskate and rely on the wonder that is free Spotify) and from then on i spent at least a week listening to everything of his that was available,which at the time wasn't a lot and there's only so many times, you can listen to the classic that is Shut Up. Although  my love and appreciation for grime isn't all that huge, i understand how important this album is to the grime community, and of course to Stormzy himself, because if i'm honest its kind of hard not to love the person he is and the music he makes.

If not having an album that everyone and they mum's adores including my own mum who i never thought would sit and listen to a whole grime album, Gang signs& prayers is also a number one album,, plus not forgetting the remix of shape of you with Ed Sheeran, which may i add is the only Ed Sheeran song i will ever play more than four times,oh and don't forget that Stormzy has seven songs in the singles chart SEVEN. Which blows my mind in the best way possible, because this is so unheard of, even Skepta performing at the Brits and having grime artists being nominated at the Brits is well, just a bit insane to me, because grime isn't a new thing at all, its been around since i was a mere child,grime wouldn't be around if it wasn't for Wiley and Dizzee Rascal and the release of Boy In Da Corner, which is and will always be one of my favourite's.

It feels like a long time coming for grime and the grime community because you cant really go anywhere in South London without someone playing or mentioning what grime means to South London and what grime means to that person, Stormzy gets it whatever it is he gets it, from having not the time for your relationship, living in a community where there's not much hope, the answer to getting out of your area and the crime that happens there and to struggling with depression, whatever it is Stormzy understand it.Which is probably why i love this album so much because he just seems to get it, and not to mention how he can go from a heavily influenced grime song to a slow love song, it just makes me love him that little bit more,

 After watching Stormzy's interview with Channel Four at least twenty times in the past two weeks, this album has resonated with me just that little bit more due to that interview, if i didn't have the up most respect for Stormzy already i really do now, after watching him in this interview talking so openly about his struggle with depression,i listened to the album again and that's when it hit me. Stormzy just gets it. Because after struggling with mental health problems for such a long time, and seeing someone you never really thought would struggle with mental health, talk about it, its just so refreshing to see someone that's struggled talk about it in both the negative and positive sense, and i don't know if its just me but seeing someone talk about something so personal to you, just makes me appreciate that person or they work that little bit  more than i did beforehand.

Now as for picking the best song's or my favorite song on the album that's kind of just a bit impossible,because each song is just as good as the last one, in its own sort of way, but if i'm honest I've played Velvet,100 bags, blinded by your grace pt1, Mr skeng, 21 gun salute and cigarettes and cush just a bit too much (so basically half the album) because i mean lily Allen and Kehlani on one song is just way too much for my tiny heart to handle, ad i guess if you haven't listened to the album yet then you must I've been after a rock for the past month, and i know when i see him in two months its gonna be just a little bit emotional.

watch the channel four interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUMyMJayhbc