Stormzy, rising British grime star from Croydon, South London recently spoke out about his battles with depression and how he hopes that his music will be able to help others to identify their battle with mental health and seek help.
The rising grime star released his acclaimed debut album, ‘Gang Signs and Prayer’ last week and he revealed in an interview on March 1st with Channel 4 news, that he hoped that by being honest and open about his struggles with the world, it would show other people battling depression, that they aren’t alone. He mentioned that his struggle with depression made him realize just how “fragile we are as humans”.
Stormzy tells of how he never understood depression until he experienced it himself: “I didn’t even know how it gets. Before I just thought go to bed, get up, go to the gym you’ll be fine. Even down to the point where one of my closest friends who was suffering from it, I used to dismiss him. It wasn’t even in a harsh way, I just used to think, just be happy….That was a world that was so alien to me. I just used to think, you get up and march on. So for me, I felt that if I needed to address that [depression], what I was going through”.
Stormzy says that he was hesitant to tell the world and didn’t know if he should seeing as his friends and family already knew he went through it.
“What convinced me to talk about it was the fact that if there’s anyone out there going through it, I think to see that I went through it would help.”
On his album, ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’, the track ‘Lay Me Bare’, includes lyrics ‘Lord help me please I’m breaking down’ and ‘Cos’ there’s still some days I find it hard’. Stormzy also raps about “sitting in my house with tears in my face.”
Stormzy opening up about his struggles with depression is very inspirational to many people especially his fans that may be going through something similar. Watching his interview, I was quite shocked because as a fan of Stormzy, I didn’t believe that someone like him would go through struggles with his mental health but hearing him talk about it really opened my eyes and it showed me that absolutely anyone, the most confident, courageous, strongest people can battle with depression and it shouldn’t be closeted.
For more information on dealing with depression or other mental health issues, visit MIND or CALM
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