Own It

"Own It" is Stormzy at his most collaborative and most sonically expansive — a track that brings together Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy in a configuration that would have seemed implausible for UK grime just a few years earlier, but which arrived in 2019 as evidence of how far grime's gravitational pull had extended. The afrobeats influence, channeled largely through Burna Boy's presence and the beat's rhythmic structure, gives the track a warmth and bounce that contrasts with Stormzy's typically harder output, while Sheeran's melodic contribution bridges the pop world Stormzy had successfully entered without abandoning his foundations. Stormzy's bars are more relaxed here, written for a romantic context that demands different emotional energy than social commentary or competitive grime — he sounds comfortable in the register rather than performing comfort. The lyrical content centers on romantic ownership and devotion, which in the contemporary context of UK relationship culture feels both familiar and slightly elevated above cliché by the specificity of the language used. Production-wise, the song occupies the post-grime space that Stormzy helped create — music that carries the genre's influence without being constrained by its formal rules. For international listeners, it's often an entry point, which makes it important in a way that's distinct from its artistic merit but not separable from it.