It's been a long time...

...I shouldn'ta left you (left you) without some dope NEW ISHT to step to:

John Legend - No Other Love ft. Estelle.mp3

Q-Tip - Believe ft. D'Angelo.mp3

Well, they're new to me anyway. I wish I could stay on top of all the cool new isht when it first comes out but hey, believe it or not I *do* have a life and for the most part it doesn't involve surfing blogs 24/7 for isht to post. Whenever I come across something it's usually on accident and I get to it when I get to it. In any event, these songs piss excellence so you should definitely check them out.

More Estelle meet & greet pics

LJ took these on Saturday but he just e-mailed them to me last night:

AGH! I did NOT know he was taking this picture! >_<

This shot is a lot better than the one he took using my camera

Annnnnd I just discovered this one is tagged on MySpace:

Me and LJ posing for Estelle's Atlantic rep
I like this one the best

Some dude with a big, professional-looking camera took some pictures of me holding the poster and then handed me his business card. I don't know if that means I can hit him up and get my pics, or if he was just promoting himself as a free agent @ the event. I want my damn pictures! Prolly have to pay for them shits though >_<>

I met Estelle today...

She was @ the Puma store Downtown on Rush St. signing autographs and taking pictures. I got a poster signed and she took a pic with me:

This is why I don't let people take my picture

My boy LJ didn't count down before he shot the flick
Neither of us were really ready and it shows
Not to mention the humidity wrecked my hair >_<

Why am I towering over her? She was wearing 3" heels and I was wearing flip flops *facepalm* She's very pretty in person - her pictures don't really do her justice. She has braces too, which I though was cool. Not mention, her accent is AWESOME. When I got up to the table she greeted me with "Ow yah dewin' Sis? Wot's yah naim lahv?" I LOVE IT, HAHA. As she was signing my poster, the song "Pump Up The Jam" by Technotronic was playing. She started bobbing her head trying to be low-key, and finally she said "Oi lahv this sohng!" and started singing along. That was a great moment - I mean really, who can resist the pulsing beats of early 90s dance techno? Front all you want, but if you were in elementary or middle school when that song dropped, you WERE on the playground singing it at the top of your lungs, or in your bedroomm, or in your parent's car, or at the school dance in the gym twerkin' it out whenever it played. I see you. I SEE YOU.

If for whatever reason you're not up on Estelle, gets'ta the YouTubes and learn ya somethin' right quick:

Versions: Estelle/will.i.am

British R&B siren Estelle has been making a lot of noise in the U.S. with her latest album Shine (2008), thanks in part to the single "American Boy" with Kanye West:

Estelle - American Boy (featuring Kanye West).mp3

However, I was really diggin' on a primarily instrumental version by will.i.am called "Impatient" which appeared his album "Songs About Girls" (2007):

will.i.am - Impatient.mp3

I really didn't like "American Boy" when I first heard it, but it's grown on me. I'm just really attached will's version because of the way it caught my attention as a stand-out track on "Songs About Girls." The composition and layering of sounds are impeccable (to me anyway) and it makes me appreciate will.i.am as a producer just that much more. You lose a lot of the intricacies when you add vocals to the track, which is why "American Boy" didn't sit well with me at first. I'm just a sucker for the nostalgia and imagery that "Impatient" invokes, so don't mind me.