Fresh off the second number one of his career, thanks to his Ed Sheehan collaboration ‘Take Me Back To London‘, Stormzy is back with another solo single, entitled ‘Sounds of the Skeng‘. This new track feels slightly less chart-ready than other new singles ‘Vossi Bop‘ and ‘Crown‘, but lyrically Stormzy’s raps are as solid as ever.

‘Vossi Bop‘ was beyond catchy from the first listen and whilst ‘Crown‘ allowed Stormzy to show off his singing prowess during the chorus, his raps made for quite an emotional track. I guess that ‘Sounds of the Skeng‘ falls somewhere in between the vibes of these two singles, with Stormzy concentrating less of deep emotional bars or angry energetic raps.

For me, the song only really gets going in the second verse, when Stormzy’s lyrics get a bit more hard hitting, as he raps about how his public perception has changed just because he’s gained fame and moved away from South London, rapping: “G in the south, but I live in the sticks now / Really been about, but they think I’m a prick now / Got a little money, and a couple of bricks now / Big for my boot, but it’s funny, it fits now.“

This might not get as much radio play as his last two singles, but Stormzy is definitely succeeding at slowly building hype for his second studio album, we’ll just have to see whether the project follows the trend set by these singles so far.