--- title: Idris Elba Raps on Skepta Shutdown Remix description: The star makes an appearance on Skepta's "Shutdown" remix canonical: https://time.com/3903957/idris-elba-stringer-bell-skepta-shutdown-remix/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-01T21:29:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:20:34.465Z og:title: Hear Idris Elba Rap About Stringer Bell og:description: The star makes an appearance on Skepta's "Shutdown" remix og:url: https://time.com/3903957/idris-elba-stringer-bell-skepta-shutdown-remix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hear Idris Elba Rap About Stringer Bell twitter:description: The star makes an appearance on Skepta's "Shutdown" remix twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Hear Idris Elba Rap About Stringer Bell by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 1, 2015 9:29 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 1, 2015 9:29 PM UTC Idris Elba is best known as an actor, but when he’s not on stage or [breaking land speed records](http://www.people.com/article/idris-elba-breaks-land-speed-record-bentley-discovery-miniseries), he’s been working in the trenches building a reputation as a rapper. You know, as a fallback in case this whole acting thing doesn’t pay off. When British rapper Skepta released his track “Shutdown” back in March, the _Pacific Rim_ star tweeted a fan request at the rapper asking for a spot on the remix based on his own very specific qualifications: Elba’s pitch worked, because fast forward a few months and Elba’s “Shutdown” remix is here. In the track he shouts out Stringer Bell, the character he played on _The Wire_ and talks about shaking off his haters, which is more Taylor Swift than Stringer Bell, but still totally works. “Sometimes you just have to SHUT “dem” DOWN,” he added on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/idriselba/status/605383493418422274). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3903957/idris-elba-stringer-bell-skepta-shutdown-remix/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3903957/idris-elba-stringer-bell-skepta-shutdown-remix/"},"headline":"Hear Idris Elba Rap About Stringer Bell","datePublished":"2015-06-01T21:29:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:20:34.465Z","description":"The star makes an appearance on Skepta's \"Shutdown\" remix","url":"https://time.com/3903957/idris-elba-stringer-bell-skepta-shutdown-remix/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","Idris Elba","DJ"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3903957/idris-elba-stringer-bell-skepta-shutdown-remix/","name":"Hear Idris Elba Rap About Stringer Bell"}}]}] ```