During his set at Leeds Festival last night (August 28), grime rapper â and noted football aficionado â Stormzy brought out esteemed Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish.
The pair have been fans of each other for a while, often seen catching up off-field at Grealishâs games with Aston Villa before he signed a landmark ÂŁ100million transfer to Manchester City earlier this month.
Stormzy has also made his affinity for Grealish known by repping the playerâs jersey in public appearances, as well as shouting him out on a remix of the Yaw Tog track âSoreâ (which Grealish himself used for a promotional video), wherein Stormzy raps: âSlide in the middle like Grealish / My next hitâs bigger than my previous / Red lightâs looking all greenish / Fake n****s call me Blood, I get squeamish.â
Take a look at crowd-shot footage of Stormzy and Grealish sharing the stage at Leeds Festival below:
Jack Grealish on stage with Stormzy at Leeds Festival was a mad one pic.twitter.com/Pd8hJRlUQO
— Ceylon Andi Hickman (@ceylonandi) August 28, 2021
iâm crying wtf why did stormzy just bring jack grealish out at leeds pic.twitter.com/4gOEYLwYRJ
— em (@emshammm) August 28, 2021
Particularly notable is that just hours prior to his unannounced appearance at Leeds Festival, Grealish scored an assist against Arsenal FC in the Premier League. Manchester City thrashed Arsenal in the match, winning five goals to naught.
Elsewhere in his Leeds set, Stormzy delivered a full slate of his biggest hits, the setlist drawing heavily from his 2019 record âHeavy Is The Headâ.
In other Stormzy news, the Croydon rapper was recently honoured with a waxwork likeness of himself at Madame Tussauds in London. Last month, he linked up with fellow grime star Dave for the collaborative single âClashâ, which the pair belted out together at the Reading Festival earlier this week.
Also in 2021, Stormzy funded 30 Cambridge University studentsâ studies through his Stormzy Scholarship scheme, published the childrenâs book Superheroes through his #Merky Books imprint, and joined forces with Ghetts for the track âSkengmanâ.
In a five-star review of his Reading set, NMEâs Kyann-Sian Williams said: âWith an unparalleled âenergy crewâ, another spectacularly executed vision, [Stormzy] continues to reign in his imperial phase.â
The post Stormzy brings out Manchester City footballer Jack Grealish during Leeds Festival set appeared first on NME.