Stormzy had revealed what he’d planned to say only to his producer, his sound engineer, and a couple of close friends.

During rehearsals, as Brit executives and producers watched, he’d used a dummy lyric to throw them off the scent.

Downing Street shot back the next day, defending the government’s actions and saying millions had been committed to the community.

The authorities’ slow response to the fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, which killed 72 people, and the conditions that led to the blaze, had already been criticised by a number of rappers.

The rapper Lowkey said the burned-out building made a sort of violence, that is usually invisible, suddenly visible.

Musician and author Akala was more blunt. “The people who died and lost their homes, this happened to them because they are poor,” he told Channel 4 News.

Stormzy’s Brits rap came after he was challenged by a guy from Ladbroke Grove called Riz, he later revealed at the launch of his book, Rise Up: The #Merky Story So Far.

Stormzy said he visited Grenfell with Riz and met some of the affected families.

“It proper dawned on me at that point. I was like, surely man can do something with whatever platform man’s got to ensure something happens?”

When Stormzy rapped about Grenfell, he seemed to get a response.

In the months that followed, he was mentioned in Parliament. Some felt he had helped influence Theresa May’s decision to appoint a more diverse panel for the Grenfell Inquiry - after encouraging his supporters to sign a petition.

Stormzy himself didn’t want to exaggerate his impact.

“All we've done is... say words. In terms of actually making change and making something happen, I wasn't quite convinced,” he told Radio 1 Newsbeat.

“Until the people in that situation fully feel like they've received their justice, then I'm not too sure about all of that.”

But the Brits moment was still one of the most pivotal in Stormzy’s career. Large sections of the country, who had previously either paid no notice or pigeonholed him, sat up and watched.

Stormzy’s music resonates for poor working-class people, says Spotify’s Head of Editorial Austin Daboh.

“Whether you’re a kid in a council estate in Toxteth in Liverpool, an Asian kid in an estate in Bradford, or a young black south London teenager, you can all relate.”

Now Stormzy was calling out the prime minister at an awards show.