A few years ago, when I was working on Annie Mac’s show on BBC Radio 1, I was recruited by sister station 1Xtra to be the voice of MistaJam‘s Lyrical Translation feature.
Every week Jam would be joined by a famous guest – an artist played by 1Xtra – and would translate their own lyrics into the Queen’s English.
I would then read those lyrics back to them, and they’d have to guess which song we were talking about.
I was lucky enough to play this game with loads of really exciting names, including Janet Jackson and Riz Ahmed – whose testimony that I was ‘a confirmed G’ has been on my CV ever since.
But by far the biggest, and most entertaining artist we ran the feature with was Stormzy.
Can Stormzy Recognise His Own Lyrics?
Stormzy was in the office to promote his new album Heavy Is The Head which, as you no doubt remember, somehow only debuted at number 2 in the UK album charts behind Rod Stewart and some sort of philharmonic orchestra.
It also featured the single Vossi Bop, which famously includes the lyric ‘f**k the government f**k Boris’, and there was a febrile atmosphere when the great man came in.
I do say this about a lot of things, but this is genuinely one of the most fun and exciting things I’ve ever done, so I really hope you enjoy watching it.
And obviously, if you ever need someone to read something out in a very factual sort of a way (or any other sort of way, for that matter), please give me a shout.