Songfacts®:

• Courtney Freckleton, aka Nines, is an English rapper hailing from the Northwest London housing estate of Church End in Harlesden. He made his recording debut in 2012 with the mixtape From Church Road to Hollywood and gradually saw a rise in popularity through his freestyle videos posted on online rap platform SB.TV.
  
  Nines third longplayer, Crabs in a Basket, became his first #1 when it debuted at the UK Album chart summit. This is the second single from the set.
• "Airplane Mode" is intended for the clubs. Nines explained to Apple Music that during his clubbing days before the Codid-19 lockdown, the DJs would play his 2017 track "Trapper of the Year," so he felt he needed something similar on Crabs in a Basket. He added that it's a "homage," but not an actual club song.
• The song is a collaboration with the East London collective NSG. That's OGD from the sextet on the hook, while Mxjib, Dope, Kruddz, Papii Abz and Mojo all spit verses. Nines explained that after he invited NSG to the studio, they laid down three tracks, "but 'Airplane Mode' was the one for me because I had my eye on the commercial side."
• The song title is a reference to the airplane mode setting on smartphones and other portable devices. OGD tells us on the hook that if he wants to ignore somebody on his phone, he puts it on airplane mode, which suspends the device's Bluetooth, cellular and Wi-Fi functions.
• Production is by:
  
  Frequent Wretch 32 collaborator Kztheproducer. His other credits include Melissa Steel's "Burning Down."
  
  English drum and bass quartet Rudimental, who first rose to prominence in 2012 when their single "Feel The Love," featuring John Newman, reached #1 in the UK. They have since clocked up two more chart-toppers, "Waiting All Night" with Ella Eyre and "These Days" with Jess Glynne and Macklemore.