Gang Signs & Prayer

The south London grime don delivers a knockout debut that’s brash and pensive in equal measure.

It may be too early for most to declare it a classic, but only a few hours after its launch, it seems fair to describe Gang Signs & Prayer as a towering triumph.

A record that feels like one of 2017’s most exciting, fascinating and emotionally involving albums.

On paper it sounds all over the place, but it somehow works. There is method to this madness and Gang Signs & Prayer owes much to how serious Stormzy considers the album format in 2017. Grime LPs are few and far between.

It cannot be understated how bold it is to go against the grain in a genre where adherence to style can equal respect, but Stormzy's ambition exceeds potential judgment from purists. He's more concerned with expressing himself and adapting to survive, so that he can express further for years to come.

His peculiar mix of antagonism and soul-searching may not be enough to convert non-believers, but this bold, ambitious debut suggests that grime has found its most accomplished ambassador yet.

As a statement on where the UK's urban scene is headed in 2017, it demands to be heard. [May 2017, p.109]

Stormzy makes every minute of this album count. By giving a voice to both the street and religious sides of his life he is able to produce a well-rounded, exciting project.

[An] explosive and emotional debut.

Gang Signs & Prayer does a brilliant job of introducing the world to the full scope of his talent, dismissing any notion of him being a one-trick pony.

Outrage is very much grime’s default mode, but Stormzy is particularly good at it.

The striking thing about Signs and Prayer isn’t so much Stormzy’s way with a well-timed and dexterous diss so much as the the quality of his lyrics when he turns his attention to other topics. ... He writes affectingly about depression on the closing Lay Me Bare, a purgative howl of a track that also tackles, in pretty painful detail, his estrangement from his father.

It doesn’t always work—it’s hard to ignore the shortcomings of his singing voice, and the otherwise relatable lyrics on “Cigarettes & Cush” are mired by a trite composition. But from the themes to the production choices to the sequencing, it’s a remarkably well thought out debut from the ascendant 23-year-old MC.

Gang Signs & Prayer is as insightful as it is extravagant, gracious as it is haughty, and divine as it is gritty, which is both a blessing and a curse depending on whether or not you were looking for more gang signs than prayer.

So while it’s not perfect, Gang Signs & Prayer is still a fairly absorbing consolidation of Stormzy’s position within the higher reaches of today’s grime movement.

There’s one serious misfire, a skit where Crazy Titch reassures us that everyone in his prison block agrees you’re never “too gang to listen Stormzy”, but mostly his wariness lends the album a series of unresolved tensions more perfectly poised than any other grime album to date. [May 2017, p.55]

Occasionally it feels like it veers too suddenly from braggadocio to piety, and it’s questionable whether Stormzy has a sufficiently versatile delivery (he’s no Durrty Goodz) to support this. But by casting his net so wide, the MC is unlikely to disappoint his diverse audience.