Estelle shines in U.S. debut

British rapper-singer garners attention with single 'American Boy'

By Melanie Sims | Associated Press

July 3, 2008

NEW YORK - Never underestimate the creativity of a rapper-singer scorned.

British artist Estelle, who recently introduced herself to American audiences with the buzz-heavy single "American Boy" featuring Kanye West, credits four years of crazy men and another four years in a rocky relationship as the catalyst behind her U.S. debut disc, Shine.

The album "was kick-started by me dumping my boyfriend," she said.

"Part of the crazy was me, so I had to get over myself and get out my own way. The other half of the crazy was like, 'No, it's you. You're crazy!'"

Estelle then cracked open her notebook and lyrically chronicled her real-life dealings with men: "Straight down, every song is a guy - a situation I went through."

The 28-year-old grew up listening to Mary J. Blige and calls Pepa of rap duo Salt 'n Pepa one of her greatest influences. She harnesses the soulfulness of the first in her singing and exudes the tough-girl stance of the second in her rhymes - switching from one style to the other with ease.

Estelle calls her on-stage persona "Audrey Pepa" - a character that embodies the elegance of Audrey Hepburn and the realness of the rapper.

Her fashion sense is just as surprisingly two-sided - naming Edie Sedgwick and Grace Jones as her fashion icons. And in something of an unconscious expression of her duality, the singer/emcee slipped out of a pair of sleek red-bottomed heels and into plush-looking boots in effort to relieve her "pinky toe" during this interview.

In an age when celebrity reality is bought and sold, artists stand to benefit from confessional lyrics that ring true. But while some draw a definitive line between their music and private lives, Estelle unabashedly connects those dots.

She said her creative process requires recording "whatever comes out my face."

"It doesn't have to be 20 different colors and tribal sounds to be 'wow,'" she said, referring to advice given to her by crooner, friend and collaborator John Legend, who signed her to his HomeSchool Records label.

The result of her process is, in short, honest.

"She's not trying to be like Amy Winehouse. She's not trying to be like any of these other kind of retro-soul artists that are coming out of Britain," said Legend of comparisons with other U.K. "It" girls.

"The only reason people are comparing them is because they're all from England."

Estelle's first album, 18th Day, was released in Europe in 2004. She now lives in New York City and says she hasn't yet found her American boy, U.K. boy or any other boy for that matter.

She's playing the field these days and laughed about trying not to check out other guys while on dates.

"I'm on a mission to keep my head straight," she said, "believing that I'm not crazy."