Is anyone else wondering if Mercury’s notorious retrograde played a part in Stormzy’s rollercoaster 2025? While most folks are busy curating their highlight reels — all sparkle and no shadows — Stormzy’s out here dropping a brutally honest, profanity-laced year-in-review that refuses to gloss over the messy bits. He took a hard swing at critics of his McDonald’s collab, confessed that posting online no longer sparks joy, and opened up about leaning on his Christian faith when life threw curveballs – including a painful breakup. Not your typical New Year gloss-over, right? Stormzy even laid bare the internal tug-of-war between his younger, explanatory self and the “newer” Mike who’s just done explaining to anyone. It’s an unfiltered, raw reset that’s as much about finding middle ground as it is about saying, “I’m not here to please everyone.” Still curious how he navigates the backlash tied to his ‘Stormzy Meal’ partnership and political controversies?
It’s that time of year where people post a highlight reel of 2025 without any of the bad bits, but Stormzy has decided to call people out.
The musician shared a heartfelt – but sweary – Instagram round-up on New Year’s Eve to summarise his year, warts and all.
He took the time to hit out at those who criticised some of his collaborations, and that he no longer finds ‘joy’ in posting online and talked about bouncing back after a breakup.
Stormzy wrote over 1,200 words in the post, jokingly calling himself a ‘waffler’, and revealed he has been leaning heavily on his Christian faith during a difficult year, without which he says he would have been ‘absolutely cooked’.
The star teamed up with McDonald’s to create ‘The Stormzy Meal’, featuring his favourite order: 9 Chicken McNuggets and Fries with two BBQ dips, a Sprite Zero, and a choice of an Oreo McFlurry or an Apple Pie.

Stormzy performed at McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It Live in November 2020 (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
He wrote: “Towards the end of 2024, my life took a few unexpected twists and turns and I was forced to pivot,” before addressing the fast-food faux pas.
“So fast forward to the beginning of 2025 where I decide to do a McDonald’s deal – a decision that led a lot of you reading this to question both my character and my integrity,” he added.
Stormzy went on to insist he has changed his ways: “See now…the younger me and I guess the ‘version’ of me you guys are more familiar with would have desperately wanted everyone to understand my reasons for doing it.”
“The Mike from yesteryears would of been compelled to quickly explain himself, and let you know that there is no world in which he would ever trade his humanity for cash. Whereas the newer Stormz couldn’t give a single f*** to explain that fact. F*** what you think and suck my d***, I don’t need to explain anything to anybody!” he wrote, before going on to explain everything for another 1,000 words.
He added: “I believe that neither of these extremes are helpful and I guess there’s middle ground I’d like to find but I’ll get to that later.”
The star had faced accusations of ‘selling out’ due to the collaboration, with artists posting stickers and graphics on McDonald’s drive-thru and in store.
According to NME, Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project was one vocal critic of the collaboration, shared an open letter on February 13, 2025, asking him to ‘help us take genocide off the menu’ and called for him to ‘stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their hour of need and respect the BDS committee’s call for a global boycott of McDonald’s by ending his new partnership with them’.
Fans accused him of deleting a ‘Free Palestine’ post because of the deal, which Stormzy responded to at the time saying it wasn’t true, and insisting brands ‘don’t tell me what to do’.
“Hey guys, I wanted to address some twisted narrative that has been circulating online this past week. Firstly, I didn’t archive the post where I came out in support of Palestine for any reason outside of me archiving loads of IG posts last year.”
“In that post, I spoke about #FreePalestine, oppression and injustice and my stance on this has not changed. The brands I work with can’t tell me what to do and don’t tell me what to do otherwise I wouldn’t work with them,” he insisted, saying he does his own research before signing any deals.”
Stormzy added: “I’m writing this because I know there are people out there who have supported me and rooted for me who are genuinely confused and hurt by what they think has happened and I want to give those people clarity so I hope this helps.
“I understand it must feel disappointing and disheartening when it seems like someone you’ve championed has compromised their beliefs for commercial gain but this isn’t the case here.
“Social media and the internet quickly pass judgment without full context. While I want to continue to be open and honest, I prefer not to respond immediately to every misunderstanding or clear up every false narrative that surrounds my name.”
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