On first listen, it is evident that this is Stormzy at his most open; many tracks address the breakdown of his relationship with presenter Maya Jama, who he dated from 2015-2019. In a recent television interview with Louis Theroux, Stormzy spoke about the reasons for the break-up, “I didn’t do what a man should do to fully appreciate love, and care for his woman.” On ‘Bad Blood’, he laments, “We didn't even grow apart / We just fell apart, that's the saddest part / And I had your heart, that's the maddest part”. The sense of regret he feels over the relationship’s failure is palpable across the album, arguably being its central theme.
The emotional maturity of Stormzy’s lyricism on This Is What I Mean extends beyond his mourning of his split with Jama. On ‘I Got My Smile Back’, he dissects his journey with his mental health. Its second verse opens, “The last time I linked, depression was a while back / Me and loneliness kick it from time to time / She knows the deal, that I ain't hers and she ain't mine”.
His pride in his position as an advocate for the Black community in Britain is apparent
‘My Presidents Are Black’ features another side of Stormzy, one which we are perhaps more familiar with. Over an infectious beat which displays his ability to develop the sounds of his origins in grime, he asserts “we're bustin' all your favourite myths, nowadays, I pull up on my Zadie Smith / A master with a pen, skin-tone darker than your skeng”. His pride in his position as an advocate for the Black community in Britain is apparent both on this track and across the album, through his collaborations with artists including Scribz Riley, Ms Banks, and Nao.
Blending trap, gospel, Afrobeats, and more, This Is What I Mean is Stormzy’s strongest work to date. That being said, despite his claim that we are "tuned into his magnum opus", one feels that there is even more, even better, to come.
