For people of a certain age – me – Chase & Status will forever be associated with their poppy drum and bass hits of the early 2010s. “End Credits” and “Blind Faith” were the soundtracks to the frightening number of hours I spent with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in my early teens, so it was a bit of a surprise to learn that just last week, over 20 years into their career, Chase & Status had their first number one single.

The song in question is ‘Backbone’, a truly filthy collaboration with Stormzy. His growling, sneering vocals – “You ain’t got no backbone!” – provide the framework for a lizard-brained drumbeat and snarling bassline. The song’s official video shows the newly minted trio performing it in a club in Ibiza, with the jeering crowd occasionally breaking into the mix. Earlier this month, Chase & Status released ‘Backbone’ at their biggest show yet in front of 45,000 people in Milton Keynes, with Stormzy coming straight from a wedding to play it, still in his best man suit. The song has staying power: it’s on track to hit number one again this week.

In part, “Backbone” is the culmination of a commercial second wave for Chase & Status. Last year they had two top ten hits with “Disconnect” and “Baddadan” and in March they performed at the Brit Awards, where they were nominated for Best Group and won Best Producer.

But it is also representative of something bigger: that dance and rap are in a particularly fertile phase of collaboration. Fred Again.., probably the most hyped dance producer right now, has a catalog full of rap features: “Stayinit” with Lil Yachty; “Leavemealone” with Baby Keem; “Rumble” with Flowdan; “Turn On the Lights again..” with Future. Before he released his first album, he released GEARa joint EP with Headie One released in 2020.

Elsewhere, there’s Lil Yachty and James Blake with their slightly odd but surprisingly good collaboration album. Bad cameowhich was released in June. Fragments of Yachty’s singing can also be heard on Blake’s CMYK002 EP from earlier this month. And last year, a drill-techno mashup went viral on TikTok: “Burn Dem Bridges,” a track by Australian producer Skin on Skin that includes a vocal sample from Sav’o and Horrid1’s “Violent Siblings.”