Artist
Tinchy Stryder Feat. Calvin Harris & BURNS
Why we feature this artist Off the Record and the producers behind the featured credit Off the Record gives Tinchy Stryder a bright electronic setting built for a night whose details are meant to remain private. Calvin Harris and BURNS are named in the artist …
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- United Kingdom
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- Pop, hip-hop
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The story of Tinchy Stryder Feat. Calvin Harris & BURNS
Why we feature this artist
Off the Record and the producers behind the featured credit
Off the Record gives Tinchy Stryder a bright electronic setting built for a night whose details are meant to remain private. Calvin Harris and BURNS are named in the artist billing, but their central role is production. That distinction matters: the record’s partnership is between a rapper’s delivery and the sound shaped around it.
The 2011 recording
Tinchy’s original release announcement identifies Harris and BURNS as the producers and gives the single’s release date as 6 November 2011. The official video arrived ahead of that date, with Luke Monaghan and James Barber credited as directors. It introduces the track as a new chapter rather than as another featured vocal exchange from Catch 22.
The production is particularly explicit about forward motion. The electronic pulse and sharply defined instrumental changes frame the rap, giving short phrases enough space to register before the arrangement moves again. The title’s idea of keeping the night unofficial fits the music’s preference for immediacy over reflection.
A different kind of collaboration
Harris and BURNS do not need to become characters in the lyric for their contribution to be audible. Their shared production identity is part of the single’s appeal, and the official audio preserves that same billing alongside Tinchy’s vocal performance. The credit describes how the recording was made rather than three equivalent singing roles.
That gives Off the Record a useful place in Tinchy’s catalogue. Earlier collaborations often built a clear conversation between rap and an invited singer; this one foregrounds the relationship between the lead performance and the electronic arrangement. The song is tightly attached to the atmosphere of the night it describes, with the production doing much of the scene setting around Tinchy’s words.
Essential releases
Off the Record
Calvin Harris and BURNS produce the electronic setting for Tinchy’s lead performance.