Stormzy has dedicated the newly released video for his song Superheroes to Chadwick Boseman following the actor’s death last month aged 43.
The video ends with text that reads: “RIP Chadwick Boseman 1976-2020 ‘Forever a Superhero in our hearts.’”
The video, packed full of popular culture references including to the rappers Little Simz and Dave, the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, and Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses novels, was premiered on Wednesday morning at schools in London, Glasgow, Dublin and Manchester.
Stormzy sent a video message to pupils welcoming them back to school and telling them they would be the first people anywhere to see the video.
“I wanted to show it to you guys first, being students in school. I think it’s important that you guys understand how powerful you are,” he said.
“We’re all superheroes, as much as we come from where we come from, we might be disadvantaged, we might have so many obstacles in front of us, you are a superhero in your own right, and don’t ever forget that.
“Those little skills that we have, those big skills that we have, those talents, those things that often go ignored, that makes you a superhero. The sky is the limit, to let you know all those things inside of you make you incredible.”
Boseman played the black icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown before finding global fame in the Marvel film universe as the king T’Challa, who doubles as Black Panther.
He was diagnosed with colon cancer four years ago but carried on working through what his family described as “countless surgeries and chemotherapy”, never speaking publicly about it.
Superheroes is a song from Stormzy’s album Heavy is the Head. Its lyrics are meant as encouragement to “young black kings” and “young black queens” to realise their power and potential.
The video includes a scene of a young girl looking anxiously at herself in the mirror before she sees a picture of Little Simz on her wall. Filled with confidence, she lets her hair down, smiles confidently and takes off.
Stormzy himself is a character throughout, including at a Black Lives Matter protest, transforming after a bolt of lightning into the rapper Dave for the line “I am young, black, beautiful and brave”.
In another scene, Stormzy confronts a white police officer carrying out a stop and search with an open copy of Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses.
The video, directed by Taz Tron Delix, also features a young girl playing football in a Rashford number 10 shirt.