"Shut Up" is a song by English rapper

Stormzy Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. (born 26 July 1993), known professionally as Stormzy, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter. In 2014, he gained attention on the UK underground music scene through his ''Wicked Skengman'' series of f ...

. The song was released independently for digital download in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

on 11 September 2015 as the B-side to the "WickedSkengMan 4" single. It was produced by XTC and written by Stormzy. "Shut Up" was originally released as a freestyle video in May 2015 but gained popularity over the year. The song initially entered at number 59 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in September 2015; however, following an unsuccessful

Christmas number one In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...

campaign, the song rose to number eight. To date, the song has sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide.

Background

The instrumental to the song was produced by grime producer XTC. Titled "Functions on the Low" and originally released by grime collective

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in 2004, it became one of the most well-known and popular grime instrumentals, and was first vocalled by Discarda on his track "Havana". "Shut Up" was initially only available as a freestyled performance on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in May 2015. Due to the popularity of the song, a studio version was recorded and released alongside the "WickedSkengMan 4" single, which entered and peaked at number 18 on the

. It became Stormzy's first top 40 entry. At the

2015 BRIT Awards Brit Awards 2015 was held on 25 February 2015. This was the 35th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena in London, presented by Ant & Dec. This was their second time ...

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

called upon

Skepta Chief Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British-Nigerian grime MC, rapper and record producer. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding ...

to invite "30 goons" onstage during his performance of " All Day". Skepta chose to invite a collective of

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

MCs and British rappers to represent their music scene, and among these was Stormzy. Fellow artists

Big Narstie Tyrone Mark Lindo (born 16 November 1985), known by his stage name Big Narstie, is a British MC, author, rapper, singer, songwriter, comedian and television presenter. He started his career in 2002 as a member of grime crew "N Double A," though ...

and J Spades downplayed this achievement, calling Stormzy a "backup dancer" during the performance. Stormzy directly acknowledges this in the opening lyrics of "Shut Up". The line "Mention my name in your tweets / Oi rudeboy, shut up" is widely believed to be addressing Cadell, an East London MC and the younger half-brother of

Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations * Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town * Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People * Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer * Wiley Mil ...

. Throughout 2015, Cadell released a series of

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...

s entitled "Hotline", in which he directly insulted and "sent for" Stormzy. These were accompanied by a series of insulting tweets. "Shut Up", as well as Stormzy's other songs "Standard", "Hear Dis" and "Scary", are regarded as being diss tracks in response to Cadell.

Christmas number one campaign

On 12 December 2015, Stormzy performed "Shut Up" during British heavyweight boxer

Anthony Joshua Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua (born 15 October 1989) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time former unified world heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles twice between 2016 and 2021. At r ...

's ring-walk for his fight versus

Dillian Whyte Dillian Whyte (; born 11 April 1988) is a British professional boxer. He has formerly competed as a kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He held the WBC interim heavyweight title twice, between 2019 and 2020, and again from 2021 to April 2022 ...

. After the performance, the song climbed up the

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chart and into the top 40. As a result, Stormzy launched a

campaign on 13 December to get the song to number one in order to rival with ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

'' winner's single " Forever Young" by

Louisa Johnson Louisa Johnson (born 11 January 1998), also known mononymously as Louisa, is a British singer. In 2015, she won the twelfth series of ''The X Factor''. She subsequently released her winner's single " Forever Young", which peaked at number nin ...

. "Shut Up" ultimately entered higher than "Forever Young" by one position.

Freestyle video

On 17 May 2015, Stormzy performed a freestyle to "Functions on the Low" in a video on his

channel, which would later become "Shut Up." The video was shot by his fan in a

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car park. The video gradually gained millions of views and had reached just under 60 million views as of June 2017 and 100 million as at February 2020.

Track listing

Chart performance

On 24 September 2015, "Shut Up" entered the

at number 59, while its partnered single "WickedSkengMan 4" entered and peaked at number 18 in the same week. Following the failed Christmas number one campaign, "Shut Up" rose from number 99 to number eight on 18 December 2015, becoming Stormzy's second highest-charting single. The song charted at number one on the

UK R&B Chart The UK Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart and the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart (also known as The Official UK Hip Hop and R&B Charts, the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Singles and the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Albums, or simply the UK Urban Chart) are 40-posi ...

and number three on the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Stormzy 2015 songs 2015 singles Stormzy songs Songs written by Stormzy Diss tracks