'I got stabbed': Rapper Stormzy reveals 'shocking' upbringing

Grime star Stormzy has revealed he's been stabbed three times in the past, including sustaining a knife wound to the head, but didn't initially realise it wasn't 'normal'.

The Brit award winner, 25, who grew up in Croydon, South London told The Sunday Times Magazine that the magnitude only hit him when he first stepped out of his community to attended a project management course in the West Midlands.

"In the room were 17 white kids. I had a scar on my head, and someone goes, 'What happened?'. I said, 'Oh, I got stabbed'.

"I will never forget. I was explaining, 'I got stabbed here, there, there...' They had faces of horror — and that's when it dawned on me. Where I come from is mad. Of course it's shocking I've been stabbed. Of course it shouldn't be normal.

"We live in this warped view of reality, and it's not our fault."

He also admitted that he still constantly expects a phone call to tell him a friend or relative has died as a result of stabbing.

In April last year, he lost his childhood friend Bjorn Brown, 23, who was found seriously injured after being attacked by two men in Thornton Heath, Croydon, the DailyMail reports.

Known to friends as 'Bugz', he tried to cycle away from the scene but collapsed and was discovered by passers-by who immediately called an ambulance. Despite treatment in hospital, he died four days later.

In addition to his award-winning music career the rapper has turned his attention to using his profile to create change. In August, he launched a scholarship for black students to attend Cambridge University after some colleges did not take any between 2012 and 2016.

The Stormzy Scholarship, which he described as his "proudest venture so far", will pay for tuition fees and provide a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course.

Last year Stormzy also donated £9,000 to an Oxford University student so she can go to Harvard.

Earlier this year, he also announced a publishing deal with Penguin to help young writers become published authors. The rapper will also be releasing an autobiography and creating a paid publishing internship in 2019.

Known as #Merky Books, his imprint will publish two to three books a year, starting with Stormzy's autobiography, Rise Up, which is released this week.