Stormzy recently received a piano lesson from Paul McCartney.
Stormzy, who won the prestigious Best Album prize at the 2018 Brit Awards, isn’t resting on his laurels, with it now revealed that he has sought out The Beatles legend for some advice on taking his music skills to the next level.
“He’s (Stormzy) looking to advance his music,” Paul told The Sunday Times. “As a rapper, I thought he’d have words down, but there was a piano, so I showed him basic stuff – how you get middle C, make a chord, a triad and, just by moving that, get D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor, and how that’s enough for anyone.”
Stormzy, real name Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., earned huge critical plaudits for his debut record, and one track, Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2, has even been covered by classical music star Katherine Jenkins. He was one of a number of stars including Kylie Minogue, Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp, who attended a secret gig Paul staged at Abbey Road Studios in London in July (18).
The former Beatle’s latest muse is not the first hip-hop star he’s worked with, as he also teamed up with Kanye West and Rihanna on their 2015 hit FourFiveSeconds.
Describing what it was like to work with Kanye to DIY magazine earlier this year, the 76-year-old said: “With (Kanye), it was much more made up as we went along – so much so that I didn’t even realise that I was making songs.”
Revealing how Kanye had then turned their jamming into a record, Paul added: “I was tootling around on guitar, and Kanye spent a lot of time just looking at pictures of Kim (Kardashian) on his computer. I’m thinking, ‘Are we ever gonna get around to writing?!’ But it turns out he was writing. That’s his muse.”
The veteran rocker’s latest album, Egypt Station, is out on Friday (07Sep18).
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