Grime star is featured on this week’s NME cover – but he knew nothing about it until magazine released the image

Stormzy has condemned the NME for putting him on the cover of this week’s edition of the magazine, with the coverline “Depression: It’s time to talk.” The grime star accused it on Twitter of using him as “a poster boy for such a sensitive issue without permission”.

Though it is commonplace for publications to run cover stories without necessarily speaking to the cover star, the phrasing of the NME cover created the impression the magazine had interviewed him, which it had not.

Stormzy called the magazine’s staff “a bunch of real life fucking pussyholes. Proper dickheads.” He added: “The reason I’m so angry is because NME have been begging me to be on their cover. I have refused. Then they do this … They see me talking bout my journey with depression and think yeah we’ve got him now.”

#GSAP (@Stormzy1) @NME They've used me on their cover without my permission. Depression is a very very sensitive issue and it's something I've spoken about pic.twitter.com/OdAXshdrug

In an interview with Channel 4 News earlier this month, Stormzy had discussed his own issues with depression. “What convinced me to talk about it was the fact that if there’s anyone out there going through it, I think to see that I went through it would help,” he said.

On Twitter, he said of NME: “My issue is not about me speaking out about it. That is fine and I’m happy I’m able to help but they’ve been very foul here … I KNOW it will help others but just imagine a personal battle of yours being published on the front of a magazine without your permission.”

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When NME editor Mike Williams responded via Twitter, telling Stormzy the magazine is given away free and was not trying to shift copies, but raise an important issue, Stormzy responded dismissively: “DEAD. You’re NOT a non-profit organisation. The more copies you dish out the more you charge for advertising. You will make money from this.”

Williams said: “I’m sorry that you didn’t know your image would be our cover. Our intentions were only positive. We were inspired by your words and wanted to use them as a springboard to talk about depression and how it shouldn’t be taboo … We used your image as we felt it would resonate most with our readers, and I can only apologise again that you didn’t know. Our only intention was to raise awareness of an issue that we’ve been inspired to talk about following your comments.”