Just like the rest of us, Estelle has probably grown tired of waiting around for Missy Elliott to emerge from whatever studio she’s been secluding herself in to bless us with a new crazy club banger. Here’s the difference between us and her, though: whereas we would have simply…well, just kept waiting for “Misdemeanor” to re-emerge with some heat, Estelle has gone one better and decided to simply unleash a Missy-esque track herself…and boy are we happy she did.
Rocking an immediately grabbing hook chant (“I can be a freak-every day of every week”) and a taut, B-more-styled fashion house strut (helmed by the increasingly everywhere David Guetta) that’s damn near impossible to sit still to, Estelle’s new single “Freak” finds the singer/ rapper boldly expressing her S&M-loving side while pushing the rest of the female population to embrace their inner-naughtiness as well.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be shy/ Yes, you gotta let it breathe,” she preaches, assuring the ladies that “he wanna see you handcuffed up/ he wanna see your leather gear” and using an interpolation of Soul II Soul’s deathless “Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)” to stress her bedroom-spicing ideas further. Repping for all men everywhere, featured guest Kardinal Offishall can only respond with a major case of the byoing-yoing-yoings (“I pitch a tent with an XL Magnum on the cover!!”).
Missy, we DEMAND you make an appearance on the inevitable remix…
Purchase the track through Estelle’s website. Expect Estelle’s third album, All of Me, later this year.
In record time, Rihanna’s underwhelming “comeback” single “Russian Roulette” has already spawned a remix. And to be honest, if we had heard this version, featuring a “killer” (heh) intro sixteen from Kardinal Offishall, first, we would have had better things to say about the record initially.
“Russian roulette/ My name’s written on your bullet/ Hollow points pointing at your heart/ Gwan, pull it!” the Canadian emcee opens, his voice adding an exciting new layer of menace to the track’s other ominous goings-on, and, like magic, instantly upgrading the track from so-so likable to a hot new favorite (which is quite a feat seeing as though we would have probably had the opposite reaction if Jay-Z’s portion on “Umbrella” hadn’t arrived until a few days after that record premiered, so bravo KO!!).
If radio attaches itself to this take, we definitely won’t mind having to hear it’s joy-sapping doom-and-gloom spew from our speakers over and over again.
Because “Dangerous” is still so damn good it deserves to earn some extended airplay despite dominating most of the summer, Kardinal drops this nice remix which serves a revised hook, brand new lyrics and additional verses from Sean Paul and Twista.
Trading in the light, Playschool bounce of the original for an intense electro-disco thump, this 2.0 version of the girl-crazy anthem sees Kardinal piecing together his ideal beauty with the body parts and characteristics of top female celebs (including Beyonce’s hips, Amerie’s legs, Keyshia’s hood ‘tude and, of course, Oprah’s dough) while the rest of the featured guests bring substantial enough heat (though nothing truly attention-grabbing) by simply sticking to their pre-established strengths (Akon still sings like a trumpet, “Sean-a” Paul continues to be addictively unintelligible and Twista is still spitting rapid-paced rhymes like he’s only got one minute to save the world).
A strong sequel, made even better by the fact that ubiquitous cameo-ers Lil’ Wayne and T-Pain are nowhere to be found.
Kardinal Offishall may be one of the leading figures in Canadian rap, but below the border, he’s struggled to win over a substantial following despite hot collaborations with American heavyweights like Clipse and Wu-Tang Clan and the appealing 2001 double-dose of “BaKardi Slang” and “Ol’ Time Killing”. All that might be about to change with Akon executive-producing KO’s upcoming collection, Not 4 Sale, coupled with the major crossover potential of it’s lead-off single, “Dangerous”.
Heavily glossed over with Akon’s Midas touch (the track’s synthesized two-step is a club-floor no-brainer while the “Konvict Mu-uuusic” CEO’s wiry croon pulls off another one of those mind-sticking hooks that sound familiar even if you’ve never heard the record before), “Dangerous” leans on the predictable side, but Offishall’s zany delivery keeps it from coming across too run-of-the-mill. Like Ludacris or Missy Elliott, Kardinall sounds like he’s possessed by a cartoon, his rubbery flow taking on all kinds of goofy inflections as he gets all ga-ga over the bomb beauty across the room. “Yeah that’s her/ The big dog tryna get her little kitty to purr,” the emcee announces, with one eye stuck on her cola bottle frame and the other remaining wary of the location of her ex-man who’s been “lookin at me like Lucifer”.
Yeah, it’s Akon’s millionth re-write of “Smack That”, but “Dangerous”, which sounds better and better with each repeated listen, should give Kardinal the leverage he needs to finally start making a major impact on American soil. Besides, the last Canadian rapper to break big in the States was Snow, and the country deserves better representation than that.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
Just like the rest of us, Estelle has probably grown tired of waiting around for Missy Elliott to emerge from whatever studio she’s been secluding herself in to bless us with a new crazy club banger. Here’s the difference between us and her, though: whereas we would have simply…well, just kept waiting for “Misdemeanor” to re-emerge with some heat, Estelle has gone one better and decided to simply unleash a Missy-esque track herself…and boy are we happy she did.
Well damn, that was fast. 
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