Ed Sheeran, The Game Team Up for New Song

By Shirley Ju

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Ed Sheeran and The Game collaborated on a song that will appear on the veteran Compton rapper’s forthcoming album, Game announced at an intimate listening session at Chalice Studios in Hollywood on Thursday night.

The British singer-songwriter provides the intro to the album and also performs on a song that may be called “Gems in Los Angeles.” said the two were collaborating in the studio while the Sheeran wrote a hook that revolves around that line.

“Welcome to the city of sin, living in the city of Angels,” Sheeran sings on the track.

The album, called “Born to Rap,” is slated for a release on eOne later this winter. Other features include Meek Mill, 21 Savage, Anderson.Paak, Eric Bellinger — and one major collab that the Game insisted must remain confidential for the time being.

While the pairing might seem unlikely, Sheeran and The Game have been friendly for several years and in 2014 announced that they had recorded an entire album together, although just one song, 2015’s “Freakshow,” ultimately emerged.

“I’m working on a joint album with that we trying to drop probably end of the year, beginning of 2015,” Game told MTV News in April of 2014. The pair initially connected over Twitter. “He tweeted something about [Game’s 2012 album] ‘Jesus Piece,’ I responded, we exchanged numbers on the DM, and then we got in the studio. We were just planning to record one song; we ended up doing like seven,” although Sheeran later said it was 11 songs.

“Ed came up with the idea to start working on a joint album, and we started doing it,” Game said in 2014. “That was like in five hours. We was just going. He was on that guitar. Acoustically, he’s a genius, man, so when he does that, what comes out of me is songs like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Hate It or Love It’ and ‘My Life.’ The songs that we got, they’re real songs. And I can’t wait for people to hear ’em.”