mixtape maestro

After years spent toiling through the underground UK hip hop-grime scene, British rapper Tinie Tempah has emerged in 2010 as one of the biggest music sensations overseas, reaching the upper reaches of the UK singles charts with his DnB/ electro-flavored club ditties “Pass Out” and “Frisky”, all the while drumming up heavy anticipation for the October release of his debut album, Disc-Overy.

Bearing a charismatic mic presence and aligning himself with strong pop and R&B hooks (he more or less sounds like B.o.B with an English accent to our American ears), we can understand the appeal and, judging by other leaks we’ve heard, assume he’ll spend the rest of the year dominating radio playlists.

“Wonderman”, a Disc-Overy duet with English pop pixie Ellie Goulding tracking Tempah’s excitement of his “trading friends for fans”, premiered on BBC Radio last week, and it’s surely going to become yet another chart smash for the up-and-comer, producer Labrinth‘s intricately layered splashes of Timbaland-inspired electro-hop and rock guitar bedazzlement making a fitting home for Goulding’s Auto-Tuned chirp. It’s only a shame his handlers aren’t pursuing an American push yet, cause we really wouldn’t mind hearing this in place of the umpteenth Top 40 spin for “Love The Way You Lie”.

Sample a radio rip of “Wonderman” below, then hear what happens when “his kinfolk” Snoop decides to rip through “Pass Out”‘s 8-bit gurgle on that track’s FI-YAH!! remix.

Tinie Tempah – Wonderman (feat. Ellie Goulding) (Radio Rip)

Tinie Tempah – Pass Out (Remix) (feat. Snoop Dogg)