Stormzy’s Rainfall music video by Ubisoft takes place inside the Watch Dogs: Legion game

Stormzy has released the music video for his latest track Rainfall, made entirely within the upcoming Watch Dogs: Legion game by Ubisoft. The video, directed by Ubisoft’s David Footman, sees an in-game avatar of the rapper created with motion capture, perform in hyperreal, dystopian versions of various London hotspots from a deserted Tower Bridge to Trafalgar Square in front of Nelson’s Column and Piccadilly Circus via Brixton. “You lot are about to have your minds blown,” Stormzy said in a teaser video ahead of the video’s release. “What they have done in terms of recreating London is the most insane, epic, incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”

Stormzy will also appear in the game as part of a mission called Fall On My Enemies – named after the track’s key lyric – wherein players help him secure a broadcast of the track in Central London.

The company apparently invited the rapper to be part of the new game, which takes place in a dystopian future London, after asking Londoners who would best reflect the themes of the game, in speaking up for the oppressed and holding those in power accountable. According to the game’s creative director Clint Hocking, Stormzy’s name kept coming up, someone he says who has “used his voice for social and political change”.

Video games are firmly established as a prominent platform for artists to promote their music, from Guitar Hero to the Fifa soundtracks, and plenty of musicians such as Katy Perry, Pink and Eminem have created tracks for video games. Some have even created their own video games, Kanye, Hudson Mohawke and Prince among them. But of late, the mediums are quickly becoming more closely intertwined, with labels and musicians capitalising on gaming’s vast captive audiences and – especially this year – the possibilities of the virtual worlds. Earlier this year Travis Scott performed a live set inside Fortnite, to an audience of 12 million players.

Watch Dogs: Legion is out 29 October. In other news, last week the stab-proof vest Banksy designed for Stormzy’s headline Glastonbury performance was shortlisted for the Designs of the Year prize.