Rapper tears into NME on Twitter after they put him on cover without permission

2025-04-28 00:58:05admin

British grime artist Stormzy has launched into a lengthy Twitter rant at NMEafter they featured him on the cover of their latest issue without his permission.

SEE ALSO: Stormzy slams Brit Awards for its lack of diversity

The magazine cover features a large picture of Stormzy with the words "DEPRESSION: IT'S TIME TO TALK" written across his chest. The line below reads: "Wise words from Stormzy, Gaga, Bastille & more".

Tweet may have been deleted

A few hours after NMEshared the cover, Stormzy began tweeting at them.

He really didn't hold back, either.

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Tweet may have been deleted

Not long after Stormy began tweeting, NME Editor-in-Chief Mike Williams addressed him directly from their official account.

Tweet may have been deleted

From the looks of it, though, the apology hasn't been accepted.

Tweet may have been deleted

Mashablehas reached out to NMEfor comment and we will update this article if we receive a response.

UPDATE: March 16, 2017, 4:23 p.m. GMT NMEsent Mashablethe following statement from Editor-in-Chief Mike Williams:

“We were inspired by Stormzy’s words and wanted to use them as a springboard to talk about depression and how it shouldn’t be taboo. NME’s only intention was to raise awareness for an issue that it had been inspired to talk about following Stormzy’s comments, we sincerely apologise to Stormzy for using his image to promote this topic on the cover without his knowledge, our intentions were only positive. We have spoken with a number of high-profile personalities to gather their stories and advice, as well as mental health charities CALM and YoungMinds to make sure the advice offered was on message. We wanted to raise awareness of something important.”

UPDATE: April 27, 2017, 4:27 p.m. BST Removed a deleted tweet.

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