Ed Sheeran has revealed that Jay-Z "respectfully declined" to feature on his hit song 'Shape Of You'.
'Shape Of You' was released in early 2017 and went five times platinum in its first year of release, and is currently one of the most streamed UK songs of all time on streaming services.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ed Sheeran said that he had been "in touch" with the legendary New York rapper's team about a collaboration, but the offer was rejected by Jay-Z.
"We've been in touch," Ed Sheeran said. "I sent him the song and he said, 'I don't think the song needs rap lyrics.' He was probably right. He has a very, very good ear,” he continued.
'Shape Of You', which was included on Ed Sheeran's third album 'Divide', became by far the British singer's biggest chart success to date.
The song dominated for 14 weeks at No. 1 in the UK and spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and also won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance.
“He usually gets things right. It was a very natural, respectful refusal," Ed Sheeran added of Jay-Z in his interview.
The revelation about Jay-Z is one of several excerpts from unreleased excerpts from Ed Sheeran's recent Rolling Stone interview that surfaced this week.
The magazine also revealed that Ed Sheeran has been working with Netflix for two years to create a new animated musical, for which he has written "many songs".
At the same time, Ed Sheeran noted that he has high hopes for the future of his collaboration with Bruno Mars and Chris Stapleton on the song "Blow" from his album "No.6 Collaborations Project" released in 2019.
"I feel like when people saw Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars together, they thought, 'Oh, that's got to have a certain sound,'" he commented of the rock song, which received a relatively lukewarm reception upon its release.
“It wasn't so much that. At some point, someone will find out and put it in a superhero movie or something," he said.