Cooking up a Storm: Grime star Stormzy plots ‘even bigger’ shows ahead of three-night Brixton stint MANAGER TOBE ONWUKA SAYS THERE’S “NO CAP” ON MC’S POTENTIAL GROWTH


TALENT  BY BEN HOMEWOOD


T


obe Onwuka, founder of Stormzy’s #Merky management company, has described the Croydon MC’s forthcoming three-night run at O2 Academy Brixton as “the crown jewel” of the campaign so far. Speaking to Music Week after Stormzy’s triumphant performances at California’s Coachella festival, Onwuka said: “There are even bigger shows to come in the future, but we’ve probably done about 400-450 since we’ve been working together and it feels like they all culminate at Brixton Academy. We’re putting everything into this.”


Stormzy took a break from touring prior to the release of his chart-topping debut album Gang Signs & Prayer in February, which has so far shifted 148,400 copies, according to the Official Charts Company. Onwuka believes the gap allowed demand to build to fever pitch, and after initially announcing two nights at the south London venue, a third was put on sale after they rapidly sold out.


“He wasn’t performing for a while, so demand bubbled up and people were more excited to see him,” Onwuka said. “We had the option to


doing just the one date there, so we had to add the extra ones.”


Even so, Onwuka revealed that the frantic excitement around the gigs – which take place on May 2, 3 and 4 – was unexpected. “The initial thought was to do one date at Brixton, which is amazing in itself – selling 5,000 tickets down the road from where you were raised, anybody would be excited about that,” he said. “But being able to add a second and then a third… I couldn’t tell you I thought that would happen!” Looking towards the future live plot for Stormzy, who is represented by Primary Talent, Onwuka said he “couldn’t put a cap on where it could go”. He continued: “I don’t think anyone expected a grime artist to do three Brixton dates, so if we tried to predict where it could go next we’d probably be wrong.”


That’s a rap: Stormzy


upgrade, but Brixton is not just an iconic South London venue, but an iconic London venue in general, for both international and home acts, so it still felt like the right place for the hometown show. Of course, we couldn’t get away with


WEEK 16 TOP 75 SHARE BY CORPORATE GROUP


ARTIST SINGLES


Universal - 34.04% Sony - 24.96% Warner - 35.36%  Others - 5.64%


ALL


ALBUMS (Combined Artists &


Compilation Albums)


Universal Music - 30.55% Sony Music - 15.24% Warner Music - 21.40% Sony / Universal - 13.77% Steps Music - 8.49% Others (See breakdown below) - 10.55%


ARTIST ALBUMS


Universal - 31.47% Sony - 19.44% Warner - 27.05% Others - 22.04%


BMG 2.76% CAST RECORDINGS 0.41% COOKING VINYL 1.48% EDEL 0.39% MERKY 1.08% SONY MUSIC17/WARNER MUSIC3 0.67% UNIVERSAL MUSIC3/WARNER MUSIC1 1.36% WHILE SHE SLEEPS 1.65% XL BEGGARS 0.73%


Stormzy’s O2 Academy Brixton shows stand to make as big an impression as Skepta’s performance at Alexandra Palace in December 2016, and Onwuka predicted further landmark achievements for his artist.


“We’ve always had the stance of, Why shouldn’t Stormzy be everywhere?” he concluded. “The generations before might have had their own excuses, but we look at the music and think, What reason can you give for it not to appear anywhere? What’s stopping us?”


WEEK 16 TOP 75 SHARE BY RECORD COMPANY Others - 18.78%


ARTIST SINGLES


Atlantic - 29.50% RCA Label Group - 4.59% Virgin EMI - 6.36% Polydor - 16.62% Island - 7.57% Syco Music - 4.39% Columbia - 12.19%


3 BEAT 2.30% AATW 1.19%


ATLANTIC RECORDS UK VIRGIN EMI 1.00% BECAUSE MUSIC 0.72% BLACK BUTTER 3.79% MERKY 0.85%


PARLOPHONE 2.51% PARLOPHONE/RCA LABEL GROUP 2.09% STEPS MUSIC 0.97% WARNER BROS 3.35%


ARTIST ALBUMS


Atlantic - 21.02% Virgin EMI - 4.49% Rhino (Warners) - 3.74% Polydor - 9.19% Island - 7.43% Warner Bros - 0.52% RCA Label Group - 3.23%


Others - 50.38%


BIG BROTHER 0.97% BLACK BUTTER 1.08% BMG 3.77%


CAST RECORDINGS 0.51% COLUMBIA LABEL GROUP 7.46% DAYLIGHTING 1.81% DECCA 6.45%


DOMINO RECORDINGS 0.44% EDEL 0.47% MERKY 1.33% PARLOPHONE 1.77% PARTISAN 0.37% SONY MUSIC CG 4.50% STEPS MUSIC 10.41% SYCO MUSIC 2.20% UMC 3.03% UMOD 0.87%


WHILE SHE SLEEPS 2.02% XL RECORDINGS 0.90%


YEAR TO DATE TOTAL MARKET SHARES BY CORPORATE GROUP SINGLES


ARTIST ALBUMS


STREAMS ALL ALBUMS


YEAR TO DATE TOTAL MARKET SHARES RECORD COMPANY SINGLES


Universal - 33.1% Sony - 25.5% Warner - 22.3% Others - 19.1%


XL Beggars 1.3% Merky 0.4%


Because Music - 0.4% [PIAS] - 0.3% BMG - 1.2%


Demon Music Group - 0.3%


Universal - 29.5% Sony - 20.3% Warner - 25.2% Others - 25.0%


   


XL Beggars 2.3% Merky 0.6%


Demon Music Group 0.8% Kobalt Music Group 0.5% BMG 2.1%


Nuclear Blast 0.5% [PIAS] 0.7%


Universal - 35.3% Sony - 22.1% Warner - 19.6% Others - 23.0%


XL Beggars 2.1%


Domino Recordings 0.6% Because Music 0.5% BMG 1.0% Merky 0.6% [PIAS] 0.6%


Universal Music - 32.0% Sony Music - 24.8% Warner Music - 21.7% Merky - 0.5% Demon Music Group - 0.8% XL Beggars - 1.8% Kobalt Music Group - 0.4% Nuclear Blast - 0.4% [PIAS] - 0.6% BMG - 1.9% Others - 15.1%


MUSIC Week


RCA Label Group - 11.9% Virgin EMI - 8.7% Island - 8.3% Polydor 9.1% Atlantic Records UK - 12.8% Columbia Label Group - 7.6% Warner Bros - 4.1% Parlophone - 3.4% UMC - 2.0% Syco - 2.9% Others - 29.2%


STREAMS


RCA Label Group - 10.8% Virgin EMI - 9.9% Island - 10.1% Polydor - 9.0% Atlantic Records UK - 10.6%


ARTIST ALBUMS


Virgin EMI - 6.6% Columbia Label Group - 7.0% RCA Label Group - 4.4% Polydor - 7.1% Island - 3.9% Atlantic Records - 14.7% Rhino (Warner) - 5.2% Sony Music CG - 5.9% UMC- 3.9% Decca - 4.7% Others - 36.6%


Columbia Label Group - 5.8% Warner Bros - 4.3% Parlophone - 3.0% Syco - 2.1% Others - 34.4%


MAY 01 03


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