Top 100 2010s: 96. STORMZY - "Big For Your Boots" (Patreon)

A lot of Stormzy’s appeal lies in his range – sometimes dark, sometimes god-fearing, sometimes playing clever games, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes thoughtful: he’s one of the only UK performers who could play the reflections-on-my-fame card (on “Crown”) and not make it sound like a humblebrag. 

So maybe it’s odd that my favourite Stormzy track is such a straightforward banger, a song that does its job – reintroducing Stormzy as a lead for his album, smacking down the competition – with vigour. The dramatic production helps, of course, but the quality is all in the details – the peachy way Stormzy pronounces “Boots” as “bewts”; the devastating dismissal of older rivals; and best of all a handful of great punchlines – “never too big for Adele”. Stormzy is a lot of things and has come to stand for even more – but one of them, when he wants to be, is grime’s funniest MC.