Since apparently people weren’t buying into the hip-house flavor Estelle was working on her last single, the clubby flop “Freak”, it makes sense that the British singer would do a quick about-face and revert back to the sound that earned her her largest crowd.
For new cut “Fall In Love”, Estelle goes for a blatant, near note-for-note retread of her 2008 Grammy-winning smash “American Boy”, but it’s one instance where artistic laziness gets a pass, because really, who wouldn’t want a repeat dose of the winning lush R&B groove that backed that Kanye West-assisted number?
Released in two versions (one that features John Legend and one pairing Estelle with Nas), “Fall In Love”, in either incarnation, is an instantly lovable summertime breezer, tracking the blooming romantic interest between two strangers who, after passing each other on the street on a daily basis, decide to finally make a go at getting to know one another better.
Have to admit though, this would be a thousand times better if Estelle would’ve just went all the way re-do and nabbed another excellently ego-centric Kanye verse…
Grab a blending of both versions (hooked up by DJ Smu) below.
If the first thing we had heard from Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek’s sophomore Reflection Eternal set Revolutions Per Minute was the slightly more radio-oriented Estelle collaboration “Midnight Hour”, we might have been a tad concerned that the much-praised duo’s comeback wasn’t going to be the deliciously underground-laced and thought-provoking lyric-focused affair we had been waiting a decade for. Hearing it after RE have already kept us entertained with a recent string of excellent pre-album leaks (“Back Again”, “In This World”, “Strangers (Paranoid)” and the HOT Jay Electronica, J. Cole & Mos Def-featured “Just Begun”) though, and we can better appreciate it’s more mainstream-leaning change of pace.
Centered around a reunion between lovers following Talib being on tour for months, “Midnight Hour” has the rapper and Estelle revving eachother up for the long-delayed sex-capades about to go down once he hits the door, as Hi-Tek cooks up a bouncy beat shuffle based around perkily chopped samples of The Shirelles’ 1961 classic “Mama Said”.
“He said ‘When you get home/ Unplug the phone/ The lights is off/ You know it’s on”, Kweli teases, while Estelle edges horny-fueled implosion awaiting his return, drawing on the blissful doo-wop harmonies of girl groups past to relate her inner-anticipation: “See I’ve been going crazy thinkin’ about you late night”.
Revolutions Per Minute drops in May. Pick up the duo’s The Re:Union mixtape here.
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.
“Okay Yeezy/ You know I had to touch this/ It feels so…so European”, giggles Estelle, the latest artist to attach her name to DJ Class‘ increasingly popular “Bmore club”-turned-nationwide anthem “I’m The Shit”.
Giving us a little “American Boy” reunion by embedding herself into the Kanye West-assisted version (alternate takes include guest contributions from Lil’ Jon, Pitbull, Jermaine Dupri and Trey Songz), the self-tagged Stelly-Stelle gets appropriately braggalicious against “Shit”‘s delirious dancefloor workout, dishing out boasts of a fierce fashion game that’s got all the “fashion papers talkin’”. But the winner of Best Line would have to go to this verse-concluding lyrical middle finger to all those gossip-page haters: “Got these gold-bottomed braces just to match my Grammy, bitch!!”. Three snaps up, Estelle.
After being inexplicably snubbed in most of the R&B categories, things weren’t looking too promising for Estelle at this year’s Grammy’s. But alas, it seems the world can sometimes be fair; not only did the singer (and sometimes rapper) leave the event a winner (for Best Rap/ Sung Collaboration), she also managed to snatch up some memorable stage time, giving “American Boy” a fitting cap-off to a year in which the R&B goodie continually kept us all warm inside.
“Star”, Estelle’s first new release under the tag “Grammy-winner”, might not be as perfectly delicious as “American Boy” but the track, released in conjunction with Crystal Light’s uPumpItUp campaign, is good enough to keep us satisfied until that next album drops.
An upbeat swirl of faux-strings and electro-dance bottom-bump, “Star” sees Estelle having a post-No More Drama Mary J Blige moment, boosting the mood of the depressed by relating her own “they told me I wouldn’t make it, but look at me now!” life journey. “I know you’re tired of working but stay up on your stuff/ Push on through all the hurtin’/ Even though it gets tough,” she inspires to the song’s workout-ready soundtrack.
Our only beef? No rapping. This song’s begging for a positive-minded rap interlude, and would of provided a nice reminder that Estelle knows how to spit a rhyme or two.
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!)
Since apparently people weren’t buying into the hip-house flavor Estelle was working on her last single, the clubby flop “Freak”, it makes sense that the British singer would do a quick about-face and revert back to the sound that earned her her largest crowd. 
“Okay Yeezy/ You know I had to touch this/ It feels so…so European”, giggles Estelle, the latest artist to attach her name to 
After being inexplicably snubbed in most of the R&B categories, things weren’t looking too promising for Estelle at this year’s Grammy’s. But alas, it seems the world can sometimes be fair; not only did the singer (and sometimes rapper) leave the event a winner (for Best Rap/ Sung Collaboration), she also managed to snatch up
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