A Numerical Look At Who’s Featured On Ed Sheeran’s ‘No.6 Collaborations Project’

Ed Sheeran’s latest offering, No.6 Collaborations Project, is a star-studded album featuring artists from a variety of genres. As a break between his albums, the compilation is a continuation of his pre-major-label days—No. 5 was released in 2011 and featured a host of UK grime artists. Now, Sheeran’s global success enables him to call on some of the biggest singers and rappers in the world.

The album is already a success, having debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200, so Genius went ahead and looked deeper into numbers behind the album.

As expected, the majority of artists featured on this mixtape hail from the US. Up-and-coming rappers Dave and J Hus rep the UK, holding their own against rap heavyweights like Eminem and Travis Scott. The only two non-UK or US artists are Camila Cabello and Paulo Londra, from Cuba and Argentina respectively.

Of the 24 artists featured on the album, only five are women. Pop is well-represented across both sexes, but standout features include R&B artists like Ella Mai and H.E.R. Memphis new-soul singer/songwriter, YEBBA also lends her talents to the only acoustic ballad on the album, “Best Part Of Me.”

In regards to genre, Sheeran wears his hip-hop heart on his sleeve throughout the album. The guest list is primarily made up of hip-hop artists, accounting for more than half the roster.

Sheeran even manages to flex alongside none other than his childhood heroes 50 Cent and Eminem on “Remember The Name.” He pokes fun at it during his verse:

I like my shows open-air, Tokyo to Delaware
Put your phones in the air if you wanna be rocked
You know I want way more than I already got
Give me a song with Eminem and 50 Cent in the club

But there’s more to this album than just rap. The project includes 25 artists spread across 15 tracks, with each track being an experiment in genre. Other influences include some dancehall beats on “Feels” and electronic sounds on the ballad “Way To Break My Heart,” which is produced by Skrillex. The breakdown of songs by genre is as follows:

Despite the long guest list, Sheeran’s contribution to the album are almost equal to the featured artists. Based on a word count from lyrics posted on Genius, Sheeran certainly holds his own amongst a huge cast of stars. A closer look at “BLOW,” “Feels,”, and “Cross Me” reveals the word count is split up fairly evenly even when there’s two other guests.

To normalize word count against the amount of time each artist is heard, the average word count per bar is visualized below. Cardi B appears to dominate, based on her single verse from “South of The Border” with 11 words per bar. PnB Rock’s voice features prominently as a recurring sample on “Cross Me,” accounting for his relatively high word count. The overall average word count per bar is around 4.3 with Ed having his own average of 5.1 words per bar.

No.6 Collaborations Project is an example of a global superstar using his position of fame and success to humbly continue a narrative started before he became a household name. He manages to cross genres and invite new and old friends along for the ride, allowing each of them to stand for themselves amidst a huge guest list.