Straight off of Ed Sheeran’s 2019 studio album, No.6 Collaborations Project, “Take Me Back To London,” featured the sounds of the London-bred rapper, singer-songwriter, Stormzy. 

The U.K. native is set to take the stage for his world tour in February, but during an interview on ITV’s Johnathan Ross Show, the award-winning solo artist reminisced on having to go against the grain with one of his music idols. 

Stormzy revealed that Jay-Z was kindly shut down to rap on “Take Me Back To London,” because it changed the DNA of the record.   

Giving a brief backstory, the “Own It” artist said while writing verses for the song, Jay needed a helping hand. 

“We got into the studio and we were writing for this song and then [Jay-Z] just stops the music and he said, ‘Tell me about London, I need inspiration,” he said, as told by BBC

The 26-year old then put Hov onto U.K. culture and successfully completed the song but later shared that he had to be honest with his “No.1 hero inspiration.” 

“At the end [Jay’s] smiling, we were probably talking for an hour. And he goes, ‘So what do you think of the song?’” he said before continuing, “I was like, ‘I love this song but you being on the song changes everything.” 

Stormzy then remembers saying the unthinkable, “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.” On the flipside, Jigga was in full support of the decision, “He fully understood [but] he couldn’t believe that I did it.” 

Tickets for the H.I.T.H. tour go on sale at 9 a.m. on Friday, December 6th. The North American tour kicks off on May 26 in Oakland. 

The full Johnathan Ross Show interview airs on Saturday (Nov.30).