Estelle's time to Shine

05 April 2008

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'American Boy', which was released in the UK on March 24, is a disco-style dance-infused funky tune featuring Kanye West and Estelle exchanging quick quips and slick rhymes about WAGs and designer suits.

Explaining the inspiration behind the song, which is produced by will.i.am, Estelle said: "We were messing about and I said, 'I'm going to make John Legend like house music, whether he likes it or not.' And he started to like the beat and came up with the hook idea. It was good stuff."

The song - which is currently being heavily rotated on music channel MTV on both sides of the Atlantic - debuted in the number one spot in the UK charts last week and has already made head-way in the US positioning at 73 on the Billboard Hot R+B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, with insiders predicting she will soon break the main Billboard Hot 100.

Her album 'Shine' looks to replicate the single's success, boasting a chart-topping blend of polished American production and Estelle's bold, brassy and brave street poetry.

Her ability for story-telling through rap has led to comparisons with Lauryn Hill, a comparison Estelle has heard before.

She said: "I've been hearing that through my whole career. I'm pretty bored of the statement, but in the same breath she's a legend. If people listen to my album the way they listened to 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill' then that means I'm good."

However, 'Shine' is much more than just a lazy imitation of Lauryn Hill - it is an exciting and refreshing blend of rap, reggae, soul, hip-hop and 1940s dancehall.

In fact, Estelle's refusal to be pigeonholed into one genre was one of her major problems while she was in the UK. It was also an issue that reared its ugly head Stateside, with record executives unsure whether to market her as a rapper or a singer.

She explained: "People were patting me on the back with one hand and saying to John Legend behind the other, 'Don't do this. I don't get it. She's too varied.'

"Then will.i.am came up with 'American Boy', and that freaked everyone out. They said, 'How are you going to do a house-music track, then do reggae?' And he went, 'She can do everything.' I thought, 'At last. Yes.' "

Trying to break into the music industry before the emergence of social networking website MySpace.com, Estelle did it the old-fashioned way - with a lot of hard graft.

Following several knock backs, she decided she was better on her own and started her own label, Stellar Ent, through which she released her own mixtapes.

Putting her talent where her mouth is, she then returned to the execs with a completed album and she was eventually offered a deal with V2 in 2003.

In 2004, Estelle released her debut autobiographical single '1980', named afer the year of her birth, at a time when black musicians such as Dizzee Rascal, Ms Dynamite, Jamelia and Mis-Teeq, were enjoying a takeover of the British charts.

Although her fresh and funky tale about growing up in west London to a Senegalese mother and a father from Grenada only scored a modest 14th position in the UK charts, her song received rave reviews, heavy radio play and support from underground DJs across the country. Estelle's follow up single, 'Free', had equal mixed success.

Unfortunately and perhaps, more aptly, unprecendently, her third single 'Go Gone', released in March 2005, only limped into number 32 in the charts, while her debut album 'The 18th Day' peaked at 35, despite five star reviews across the board.

In the fickle world that is the music industry, it seems the UK weren't quite ready for Estelle and she seemed to fade away.

What followed was months of depressive analysis of exactly why, despite stacks of critical acclaim and support, she had been unfairly brushed aside, along with many of her black contemporaries.

But luckily for Estelle there was one man who had not lost faith in her.

John Legend saw the potential in this sassy Londoner when he featured on two tracks on Estelle's debut album, 'Hey Girl' and 'Freedom' and vowed never to give up on her.

Estelle explained: "It seemed to me like things went to a certain level, then it went past that level, and I don't think the V2 had the know-how or the capacity to deal with it. We went to some labels after we left V2, and everybody was on some bulls**t. Straight-up bulls**t.

"The minute I said to John Legend, 'I'm leaving this label,' he said to me straight up, 'I'll sign you.' "

With a renewed determination and self-confidence, Estelle moved to the US on her own, stayed on a friend's couch and worked out the deal with Legend

The singer joked her transatlantic move was like "a job offer" and said doors started opening left right and centre with a hip hop superstar hoping to collaborate behind every one.

Behind one of those doors was Kanye West, who invited Estelle to support him on the UK leg of his 2007 tour.

Their partnership was recreated for the 'American Boy' single, accompained by a typically slick West video, featuring a newly glammed-up and groomed Estelle.

Describing her new US-ified image, she said: "I first switched when I hit 25 and thought you know what? My boobs are going to drop in five years, and my legs are going to have cottage cheese all over them - something I cannot stop. So I thought, let me show that s**t off real quick. I feel like I'm beautiful, and every woman should feel like that."

Beautiful, sassy and talented to boot, it seems Estelle's time to shine has finally arrived.

By Kate Sole

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