‘Do Better’ – Stormzy

Gill writes:

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that parents of teenagers can have a tendency to secretly like some of the music that is blaring out of their offsping’s room.

Needless to say, in our house, the music that I secretly (well – not any more!) like is that of Stormzy. From ‘Shut Up’ to ‘Vossi Bop’ to ‘Heavy is the Head’ to this song – ‘Do Better’. The video to this song was inspired by his performance at Glastonbury in 2019 – a performance that, for many, went down as one of the best Pyramid sets ever.

Funnily enough, whilst many of us who had watched were buzzing – Stormzy says “I came off stage and thought I’d totally, absolutely blown it,”. He says that he cried for an hour afterwards because he believed that it was the worst show he’d ever done. It transpires that his in-ear sound blew 20 minutes into the set and he had no sound. He couldn’t hear how good he actually was.

Even though people were reassuring him, it took organiser Emily Eavis to play it back to him so he could see how great it had been.

The lyrics to ‘Do Better’ manage to encapsualate the pressure that Stormzy is under – and also puts himself under. The video shows us the effort he puts into his work and brings to mind that being black means you have to work twice as hard at your craft to be seen and respected.

If I can do better then I’ll be better
Rolling in the deep, I need to breathe better
I see demons in my sleep, I need to sleep better

There are a lot of us out there who push ourselves to know more, do more and be more. It’s good to push ourselves a little – to strive for better, especially if that ‘better’ is for others. However, we can push ourselves too much, too far and too hard as well – and that doesn’t reap rewards for anyone.

The chorus throughout reminds us that though we can do better, it will still be okay. By all means, aim to be your best self (as they say these days) but remember that you can rest, you can let up, you can let down, you can be human.

Find out what Stormzy is up to at the moment at https://www.stormzy.com/