Stormzy has used his new album to publicly apologise to Maya Jama for ‘disrespecting’ her during their four-year relationship.
The rapper, 26, released Heavy Is The Head on Friday, December 13, which includes a track called Lessons, a song about the regrets he has over the way he treated his ex-girlfriend during their relationship.
In the song, he apologises for ‘doing the dirt’ on her and for ‘pouring’ her love down the drain, describing what he did as his ‘biggest of regrets’. The lyrics directly reference the rumours that Stormzy cheated on Maya during their relationship.
The lyrics start by describing the 25-year-old TV and radio presenter as ‘more wonderful than a Disney one’, before saying what he did was a ‘coward move’ and adding: ‘I know you’ll never listen now.’
They continue:
Fast forward now, my nephew’s still asking for his Auntie Maya / Guess this is the karma for what I done to Maya / I just stood and let it burn, I couldn’t done the fire, Lord, I pray you make it easy, that’s my one desire.
God loves a trial, I can’t even fathom what I probably had you going through / You cannot imagine how I’m sorry, man, I’m showing you / Now I haven’t even got the luxury of knowing you / We was even meant to share a seed and let it grow in you.
I can’t even look you in the eye, that’s cause of shame / Now you’re tryna block me out your mind, that’s cause of pain / Greatest love I ever knew, I poured it down the drain / Maybe it’s the only way we both call it a day.
Many have criticised his decision to go public with the apology, saying he should have kept the reasons behind their split private – as Maya has done – and should have apologised to her and her alone.
However, Stormzy has disputed this, telling BBC Radio 1 Xtra he felt the need to go public with the apology to fully acknowledge the role he played in their break up.
He explained:
It was a hot topic and I’m going on record now and I’m apologising. I’m trying to lay it all bare and be very truthful and be very clear in my truth. I’m not trying to shy away from it. It was a public disrespect. It was a public disrespect that needed a public apology…
That girl gave me the world and I disrespected that… I will wholeheartedly say that’s a phenomenal woman that loved man wholeheartedly and gave man everything and was man’s everything. And I disrespected and was inconsiderate – a big disrespect, publicly as well.
The least I can do is come out and say, come on… I will say it 100 per cent loud and clear that’s a brilliant woman – we shared something very deep and she loved me wholeheartedly. And man went out and disrespected.
Stormzy and Maya split in August after four years together. At the time, they told fans they’d split so that they could focus on their careers, but later reports suggested Stormzy might have been unfaithful.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).