Stormzy visits BBC Breakfast in his slippers

He may have played Glastonbury wearing a stab-proof vest, but Stormzy opted for a more comfortable outfit when he appeared on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday.

The rapper accidentally forgot to change out of his slippers before he got into a taxi to the studio in Salford.

"I forgot, I'm an idiot!" he told hosts Dan Walker and Louise Minchin.

"I did a signing in Bristol... then I got in the car. I was like, 'Ah damn, I ain't got my trainers!'"

Twitter users loved the slip-up (or should that be slipper up?) with one observing that Stormzy had proved "what every middle-aged white man has known for years: slippers are cool."

Maybe his feet were too big for his boots.

Once the wardrobe malfunction had been explained, Stormzy addressed the recent controversy over his comments about racism in the UK.

The grime artist gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica shortly before Christmas, in which he was asked if Britain was still racist, to which he replied: "Definitely, 100%" - even if such racism was "hidden".

The quote was used in several articles to suggest that Stormzy had said the UK was 100% racist, rather than that he 100% believed there was racism in the country.

"It's the classic media spin," the rapper told BBC Breakfast.

"They know what they're doing. They're weaponising what I said. A lot of people thought I was trying to incite division - but that's what [the media] did, really."

The 26-year-old, whose real name is Michael Omari Owuo, said he'd come to accept that fame meant his every word would be scrutinised.

"I could say something now on the sofa in jest, or say something in passing, and it becomes a headline: 'Stormzy said that!'" he observed.

"It gets exaggerated and sensationalised.

"I'm not naïve to the fact that I've progressed to the point now where I've got a platform and I've got influence and I've got reach," he added. "And on most days I wake up willing to use that and stand my ground and bite the bullet and stand up for whatever.

"On the other end of the spectrum it's overwhelming when you say a little thing and it [goes crazy]."

Stormzy and Wiley have been exchanging insults in their music

The start of 2020 has seen the rapper engaged in a war of words with fellow grime artist Wiley, who criticised Stormzy for working with Ed Sheeran on the number one single Own It.

"You never cared about grime, you just used it," said Wiley in a song uploaded to YouTube on Sunday. "Worse than Edward, you watered down music".

Stormzy responded by comparing Wiley to a "drunk uncle", and releasing a song of his own, called Disappointed.

In the track he rapped: "I'm so big that the only thing bigger than me last year was Brexit / I can't tweet, I'm too reckless / I'm too BBC Breakfast."

Speaking about the lyrics on Tuesday, he said: "I've become a mainstream act as well as being an MC and a rapper. Sometimes it gets weaponised against me - and I'm saying, 'No, I'm BBC Breakfast, I'll take that all day'."

He also spoke of his admiration for Ed Sheeran, saying: "I love Ed. That's my brother. I've only got good words to say about that man."