JAY-Z was pursued to be on Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You”.
JAY-Z was approached to be on a song that became one of the biggest in streaming history, but the rapper declined it. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Ed Sheeran revealed that he pursued Hov to be on his song “Shape Of You”, but the rapper respectfully passed on it.
“We were in touch,” Sheeran told Rolling Stone. “I sent him the song, and he said, ‘I don’t think the song needs a rap verse.’ He was probably right. He’s got a very, very good ear. He usually gets things right. It was a very natural, respectful pass.”
The hit song was released in 2017 as part of Sheeran’s third studio album “÷”. “Shape of You” peaked at number one on the singles charts of 34 countries, including the US Billboard Hot 100, and stayed at the top for 12 non-consecutive weeks. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2021, Billboard ranked “Shape of You” as the tenth most successful song of all time. The music video for the song currently has nearly 6 billion views on Youtube.
Ed Sheeran has missed out on a chance to collaborate with Jay-Z before. In 2019, Stormzy disclosed that he declined a verse from Jay-Z on their joint track with Ed Sheeran titled “Take Me Back to London.” Securing a feature from Jay-Z is a difficult feat in today’s music scene, as he only made a few appearances on tracks in 2022, namely Pusha-T’s “Neck and Wrist” and DJ Khaled’s “God Did.”
