Stormzy claims "the teacher that kicked him out of college" was the "deciding" factor in him not being able to attend Cambridge University.
The 25-year-old grime star – who topped the charts with his debut album ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ last year – revealed on Saturday’s episode of ‘The Jonathon Ross Show’ (03.11.18) that he never got the chance to attend the prestigious university because he was "kicked out" of his college for putting "loads of chairs" on another student.
Speaking on the ITV show, Stormzy said: "I wouldn’t say I decided not to. Life. And the teacher who kicked me out of college also probably decided as well.
"That was always the path that I was supposed to go on… I got kicked out [of school], not for anything crazy. It’s going to sound way crazier than it was, I put loads of chairs on another student. It sounds mad but we were messing around, it was horse play and I just put loads of chairs on the student so he was trapped.
"Enough to entrap the whole human body. It was a spontaneous attack actually. It was just some banter, as you do … It sounds crazy but it was just jokes. It was like the hundredth strike, you don’t get kicked out for putting chairs on someone. I was just a little sh*t, I’ll admit it now."
The ‘Blinded By Your Grace’ hitmaker has launched his own publishing imprint #MerkyBooks to tackle lack of diversity in higher education, and confessed he started the project because he feels it should be "documented".
A collaboration with Penguin Random House, the new project has started with ‘Rise Up’ which tells his own ascent to the top, and will be used to give black authors a platform.
Stormzy added: "With #MerkyBooks and the publishing imprint, I want to tell stories that I feel like not only the country but the world needs to hear. It almost sounds a bit humanitarian, world peace kind of speech but I feel like my story and my whole team’s story, I feel like that is something that should be documented.
"It’s a very short story so far, in terms of we’ve got a hell of a long way to go but I feel like the story of a young, black south Londoner like myself coming through and assembling this incredible team of so many incredible people and having the success so far, I think that’s important, I think it should be documented.
"It’s in partnership with Cambridge University and every year we will send at least two young black students to Cambridge and we will pay for their tuition."
Stormzy blames teacher for dashed uni dreams
