Stormzy teases February release with mysterious London billboards

Is the grime don’s debut album about to drop?

Mysterious billboards have appeared around London this morning seeming to tease a new release from Stormzy.

The billboards, seen in Shoreditch, Hammersmith and other London locations, feature the MC’s “#MERKY” logo in the left hand corner, cryptic lines that could be lyrics and the phrase #GSAP 24.02 – suggesting a February 24 release date.

See photos of the billboards below.

New music has been long anticipated from the rapper, who’s been working on his debut album for a number of months now. The album is said to be produced by Wretch 32 collaborators Messers Mo and Mikey Samuels, and according to quotes in a recent interview with Clash sounds “like Michael personified. And I’m using Michael not Stormzy, because I feel like I need to get back to who I am. There’s been glimpses of people seeing who I am but I’m talking on a musical level,” he explained.

“You’re getting the freestyles, you’re getting the records here and there, but you’re not getting who Stormzy is. I want you to understand who I am, what I love, what I hate, what I treasure, what has stunted my growth, helped my growth. I want everything to be in this record.”

As well as featuring soul singers (because “there’s some bits I can’t do myself. I want people to feel that sense of bereavement or pain or mourning from my record”), the record is also likely to contain a cameo from 13-year-old viral star Deno Driz, a London secondary school student whose playground videos of him singing Ed Sheeran recently landed on Stormzy’s radar.

Watch Stormzy perform ‘Standard’ live on the FACT Great Escape 2016 stage.

Update: Further billboards have now been spotted across London, including one with the words “Big Mikey”, all but confirming this as a Stormzy release. Check out photos below.