Stormzy’s references to Jacqueline Wilson and Malorie Blackman in his new song Superheroes have been embraced by both authors.
The two former children’s laureates are both highlighted in the grime star’s song, which features on his new album, Heavy Is the Head: “Serena or Venus, the way I serve it, / I’m Malorie Blackman the way I sell books,” he raps, while as the track ends, he sings the lines from the theme tune to the TV version of Wilson’s Tracy Beaker, originally written and performed by Keisha White: “Doesn’t matter what will come my way / Believe me now, I will win some day.”
“Oh my God! I got a namecheck! I’m stunned. And thrilled. Thank you, Stormzy!” responded Blackman on Twitter. “And what a great song – and I’m not just saying that because I got a namecheck! (Still can’t get over that!) Stormzy, you are hella talented.”
Her daughter, Blackman added, had also listened to the song “and said,‘Does he have any idea how uncool you are?’” Blackman later said: “Daughter told me that it’s the way I give negative sh**s about being cool that makes me cool. High praise indeed from her. High praise indeed from you. Thanks, hon.”
Stormzy has previously described Blackman’s children’s book series Noughts and Crosses as his favourite books of all time, which “showed me just how amazing storytelling could be”. His publishing imprint, #Merky Books, has also acquired Blackman’s autobiography.
Wilson, meanwhile, said: “What a treat to hear the Tracy Beaker theme tune popping up on @stormzy song. Love it!”
“Ayeeeee JACQUELINE WILSON ya na!!! Real ones know!! what a legend!!” responded Stormzy, adding to Blackman: “You are the greatest!!!!!”
The musician, who guest edited the Observer magazine this weekend, said he was now considering studying English at university. “Something to do with books. Something that can have me lost in words. Poetry. Creative writing. None of that stiff literature,” he told Judi Dench in a Q&A, who had asked him what he might study at university himself, given the chance, having set up the Stormzy scholarship at Cambridge to fund black undergraduate students. “In the past couple of years I’ve started reading poetry again. Yrsa Daley-Ward, she’s the one, she really got me back into poetry. Rap’s an art form. When I’m writing music I see it as poetry, and I never forget I’m a poet myself … the meanings in it, the sentiment… I just think, ‘Wow, this is the shit that I love!’”
