Stormzy has already made significant waves in 2017 with his critically acclaimed debut album Gang Signs And Prayers (GSAP), and also revealing his struggle with depression in several interviews. Stormzy (Micheal Omari) was almost universally praised for his revelation, especially due to his musical genre. Grime is not known for it’s emotive side, but focuses more on gritty depictions of life.
Mr Omari seems to follow the mantra of not all good press is good press though. Stormzy was used as the cover artist for NMEs latest edition which focuses on depression. On paper this may seem like a good idea; until you realise Big Mike actually rejected the opportunity to be the cover star which he reveals via Twitter. Predictably the grime prince was furious when he found out. In a string of tweets which you can read below Stormzy verbally attacks NME for the way they used his image.
You lot know I don't rant or open my mouth up for no reason but serious @NME magazine are the biggest bunch of sly, foul PAIGONS.
— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) March 16, 2017
I KNOW it will help others but just imagine a personal battle of yours being published on the front of a magazine without your permission
— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) March 16, 2017
And for those saying @NME done this with no bad intent, they know exactly what they're doing. They couldn't get me on the cover so done this
— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) March 16, 2017
To Stormzy’s credit he understands that the use of his image will have positive benefits for the readers, but he has to to weigh the good and the bad. Stormzy may have spoken about his depression before but that doesn’t suddenly give NME the right to use him as the poster boy for depression. Stormzy’s admission was delivered via a controlled message, which is a big difference to the way NME handled Stormzy.
NME responded via their own twitter with a long string of tweets in order to justify their use of Stormzy’s images.
@Stormzy1 Hi Stormzy, Editor Mike here. I’m sorry that you didn’t know your image would be our cover. Our intentions were only positive…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 We were inspired by your words and wanted to use them as a springboard to talk about depression and how it shouldn’t be taboo…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 We spoke to CALM and YoungMinds in order to make sure the advice we were giving people was on message with how they advise…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 We spoke to CALM and YoungMinds in order to make sure the advice we were giving people was on message with how they advise…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 and we spoke to other people with a profile to gather their stories and advice too…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 We used your image as we felt it would resonate most with our readers, and I can only apologise again that you didn’t know…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 Our only intention was to raise awareness of an issue that we’ve been inspired to talk about following your comments…
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
@Stormzy1 I'm really sorry this has happened. We're a free magazine and were not trying to shift copies, just talk about something important
— NME (@NME) March 16, 2017
To which the South London artist replied:
DEAD. You’re NOT a non-profit organisation. The more copies you dish out the more you charge for advertising. You will make money from this. https://t.co/aPMtU4gy5M
— #GSAP (@Stormzy1) March 16, 2017
NME claim to have had the best intentions in mind, but we believe you should take their words with a pinch of salt. NME is a well established magazine, therefore it is hard to believe they would be surprised at Stormzy’s annoyance; especially after he had already snubbed the publication.
Thanks to celebrities like Stormzy mental illness is becoming more socially accepted. Despite this we must still respect their privacy; which is something NME clearly did not do.
