In a recent interview with ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show, Stormzy revealed how he had turned down an opportunity to work with Jay-Z. At the time, the British-Ghanaian rapper was collaborating with Ed Sheeran on “Take Me Back to London”—the eighth single on Sheeran’s 2019 album No. 6 Collaborations Project which subsequently topped the UK charts for five straight weeks. According to the BBC, when Sheeran mentioned that Jay-Z would be jumping onto the track with them, Stormzy told Jay-Z that he didn’t feel that it was the right song for the two of them to work on for the first time.
Very few people are able to say no to Jay-Z. Most musicians would jump at the opportunity to collaborate with the billionaire rapper and without thinking twice about it—unless they’re Stormzy, of course. “I felt proper bad because I was like, ‘You’re saying no to Jay-Z!'” he said emphatically. He added that Jay-Z was, however, “super proud and super shocked and taken aback by the fact that this kid told him [no].”
For Stormzy, it wasn’t a matter of not wanting to collaborate with Jay-Z but feeling that it was neither the right time nor the right song for them to do so.
He relayed his conversation with Jay-Z saying, “I was like, ‘I love this song but you being on the song changes everything.” Stormzy added that, “If you didn’t ask me this, I would have just written my verse and we would have done it and I would have never questioned it, but now that you’ve asked me, no.” He then ended off by saying, “I know how it goes, Mr Z. You are the most brilliant, busy man and I will probably never get this opportunity ever again but hand on my heart, I don’t think this is the right song for us. I don’t know why I’m saying this to you but this is not the song.”
“Take Me Back to London” was just one of the songs Stormzy worked on with Sheeran. Two weeks back, he dropped a new single entitled “Own It” where he featured both Sheeran and Burna Boy. The playful accompanying visuals show the trio dancing on the rainy rooftops of London in what appears to be tremendous fun.
Stormzy’s much-anticipated second album Heavy is the Head is set to drop on December 13th.
