FEATURE:
Groovelines
Estelle (ft. Kanye West) – American Boy
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I have said how there seems to be…
this cut-off point, where great, catchy songs sort of fizzled out by 2005 or 2006. I might stand corrected as I am highlighting a terrific 2008 song for Groovelines. British rapper Estelle put out American Boy that year. Featuring Kanye West, the song was written by Estelle, West, Ethan Hendrickson, will.i.am, John Legend, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, and Keith Harris. From her excellent 2008 album, Shine, I really love the song. It is played to this day. So many people who didn’t experience the song the first time around are falling for it now. Reaching number one in the U.K. and a top-ten hit in the U.S., there is no denying the quality and popularity of American Boy. I want to bring in a couple of interviews where Estelle discusses the creation of American Boy and working with John Legend and Kanye West. Before then, Wikipedia have a section where they collated critical reaction to the track:
“Mariel Concepcion of Billboard called "American Boy" "a charming duet with West". Andy Kellman of AllMusic, Luke Bainbridge of Observer Music Monthly and Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine named the song as a standout on its parent album. Bill Lamb of About.com gave the song a four star rating, listing the chemistry between Estelle and West, the song's beat and Estelle's vocals as the song's highlights. Lamb also added "This song is perfection for a slick, summery glide across the dance floor."
Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy found "American Boy" to "boasts bags of self-confidence ("Don't like his baggy jeans but I like what's underneath 'em," she purrs at one point), a winning chorus and sultry, super-sleek production from Will.i.am and John Legend" while commenting "it shouldn't have taken a guest spot from the self-proclaimed King of Hip-Hop to make this tune a hit." Timothy Gabriele of PopMatters called the song "an essential piece of ebullient summer musical manna rained down from empyreal heights and granted to us passive listeners as one final gift before the world spirals off into an inescapable vortex of cyclones, earthquakes, economic collapse, and a doom-sealing Presidential race." Joshua Love of Pitchfork praised the song's hook and will.i.am's production work. while Omar Jenning of The Skinny was dismissive of West's rap interlude. Ben Hogwood of musicOMH lauded the song as an example of how "Estelle has added a large pinch of soul to take her music to the next level”.
I recall when American Boy came out in 2008. I don’t think I had heard of Estelle prior to that. I really took to the single. It is slinky, sexy, fun, catchy and sticks in the mind. Although Kanye West brings a certain gravitas, it is Estelle’s hypnotic and assured vocal performance that pushes the track over the top!
Maybe we get some crossover and repetition with these two articles. I think it is important to highlight both. Elle featured Estelle and American Boy in 2018. There are some great insights and revelations that provide greater depth and clarity:
“Estelle turned hot guys into a hit song.
I was in Miami, finishing my very first US release. We put the record out and John Legend was like, "What do you want to write about?" I said, "Well, you know, I've been having a good time out here. You don't really have a huge amount of Cuban, Puerto Ricans, Dominican, Spanish men in the UK.'" They were hot! I'll say that categorically. They were fine. They were very fine. I was just like, "This is great." That was me just having a good time looking at these guys on the beach and enjoying my life. That was it!
Estelle met Kanye West and John Legend at a chicken restaurant.
I met him at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in L.A. He was sitting there on his phone. I did a thank you prayer to God because I'd been dying to meet him. I said, "You know, I'm a big fan, but I do want to meet John Legend" [who was signed to West's G.O.O.D. Music label]. I love John's voice—especially on a record he had called "Used to Love U," the original demo on the mix tape. And I was like, I have to work with this guy. He's incredible. I asked him to meet John and the rest is history, you know?
Him and John were sitting down eating, so he said, "Come to the studio later after we finish eating. We're in the middle of a record." I was like, "Cool."
PHOTO CREDIT: James Anthony
John Legend gives sexy musical advice.
Me and John wrote the lyrics together. I don't know how to explain it other than sounding corny, like, "Oh, it's poetry"—it's not really. I come to it from another standpoint; I essentially write raps that are turned into song. John comes in as a traditional songwriter, and he's an English major too. He would edit whatever I'd written and say things like, "Oh, you can say that sexy" or "Try this line instead."
We both have a really good grasp of the English language and we knew how to make it simple. We'd been recording for two years prior to that, so it wasn't a hard process. The words felt good coming out my mouth and they sounded good, so we just kept going with it. It took a couple hours—the good ones don't take long.
That often misheard line says "I'll show you to my bredrin"—not "my bedroom."
"My bredrin" is something that I call my friends to this day. It's West Indian/English slang for "friends." I used "bredrin" because it was a two-syllable word—it's something I would actually say, and "friends" is just one.
I'm a rapper first. This is how I speak, these are the things that come out of my mouth on a regular day. This is how I write, this is the kind of person I am. This is the kind of artist I am. I'm not gonna simplify things to the point where you lose all identity and all culture for the sake of making it okay for people to understand. As long as it feels and sounds sexy, you're good. As long as it feels and it sounds good coming out your mouth, it is what it is, you know?
Getting Kanye involved was a cinch.
He came and just did it. He was very gung ho, supporting John and signing me in the first place. He was like, "Yeah. You should work with her. I think she's great. I think you guys can make some good shit." It went from there.
All those hot guys in the video came from a cattle call.
We brought guys in. We called all our friends and all the people that I admired in New York and in London, and told them, "Come be in it." And they were like "What?" All my guy friends that are in it now are like, "Yo, I can't believe me you had me in the video mix."
Somewhere in Capri, there's a village band who only know one song: "American Boy."
I knew that people loved it. I felt that from every time I played it. I loved it. It would be that reaction from the executives down to regular people, like, "I don't know what this is but I feel like I know it." But the way it just went through the roof, that was unexpected.
I think it hit me when I went to Capri. This little village band knew that song and that song only. They just kept playing it over and over and over, for a whole day. They were like 70-year-old Italian men playing "American Boy." It just freaked me out. I thought it was hilarious.
I hear it in the club. It's crazy. I hear it in the club. I hear it in lounges. I hear it in bars. I hear it in restaurants. I hear it everywhere I go, and I'm grateful.
After the song came out, Estelle met her own real-life American Boy.
My life is an open book. All of my albums. They're on all the albums. I live true to my work. That's what takes me so long. Everyone's like "Where did you go?" And "How come it takes you so long?"
There are definite times when my team look at me like "How did you know?" And I'm like "I don't know. My instinct. Something told me." I do believe in the power of your words and writing things down and manifestation. My mum, my family, my friends, they all look at me like, "You're a little special with that." I don't know. I've always been like this”.
Bustle reported the history and story behind American Boy earlier this year. Estelle has affection and respect for a song that is thirteen:
“The duet, performed by West London singer-songwriter Estelle and rap superstar Kanye West, dropped in March 2008 as the second cut from Estelle’s sophomore album, Shine. With a thumping beat and verses packed full of U.S. to UK cultural references, the song depicts a romance between a British native and her flashy American admirer. It arrived in a music landscape dominated by Timbaland features, Lady Gaga’s electro-pop debut, and during the advent of the industry’s digital takeover. Music sales on iTunes had risen 27% in the U.S. compared to the year before.
It wasn’t long before “American Boy” had achieved international success, reaching the top spot on the Official UK Singles Chart and the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Just a year later, in 2009, the track had become the 25th best-selling downloaded song of all time in the UK, the Telegraph reported.
There was a slight bump in the road, however, when “American Boy” was temporarily removed from iTunes by Warner Records. Per NME, the decision was made to encourage the purchase of physical copies. Following a dramatic fall in sales and chart position, it was later reversed.
The chart success of “American Boy” also aligned with a largely positive critical response. One review from Digital Spy lauded the track’s “winning chorus and sultry, super-sleek production”; accolades including a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration soon followed.
Today, the legacy of “American Boy” can be felt way beyond its late 2000s peak. The song has enjoyed pop culture resurgences via James Corden and Sheridan Smith’s Gavin & Stacey rendition, and multiple viral TikTok trends, including a Fornite parody that is fast approaching 25 million Youtube views at the time of writing.
To discover more about the curation of “American Boy”, I spoke to Estelle — who recently became host to Apple Music Hits’ The Estelle Show — who shares how the track came to life in the studio, what it was like work with Kanye West, and much more.
On Working With Kanye
We ran through all the different MCs and rappers when thinking about a potential feature on the song — it just always kept coming back to Kanye. People were telling me, “He’s gonna flow on this. He’s gonna say something wild.”
I first met him in 2003, and already knew him, so it wasn't weird. Eventually, he agreed in principle to get on the record, but it took a full year before he actually did it. When he arrived to start recording, he had just got back from London, which was perfect timing. He had all the lingo down. Although, he did ask me what people were drinking in London. I told him, “Not Grey Goose, everyone drinks Ribena.” I think he may have thought it was some special drink [Laughs].
In the studio, [Kanye] just came in and free-styled. He did it line for line, and bar for bar.
In the studio, he just came in and free-styled. He did it line for line, and bar for bar. Then we edited what we needed to edit, and kept the original vocal. He didn’t take too long. But at the end of the session, I was so happy. We were all so excited because the song sounded so good. Later that same day we all went to a club, I was in the middle of the dance-floor because they were not giving me VIP that night. But, of course, Kanye was in the VIP section. It was hilarious. I had just been in the studio with him like an hour before. It was wild.
On The Legacy Of “American Boy”
I thought the song was going to be successful, but I didn't know I was going to do all this. I just recently put together a full awards cabinet from that period, and I was like, holy crap. There are young kids telling me that they love “American Boy”, and I’m thinking, “This is nuts, you’re like seven. How do you know this record?” It turns out their mum used to play it in the car, or they heard it on TikTok. People are not forgetting the record, and I love it. It's a forever record, and I'm grateful to have at least one.
I remember the song being on Gavin & Stacey and it was wild. I actually met James Corden years later when I went on his show. He was so excited, and it was lovely to meet him because I remember the Gavin & Stacey version. People still reference that moment, but also reference the song in many different ways. There’s a resurgence every year – a couple of years back the kids on TikTok were doing a slowed-down version of the song. Then a remixed version got really big, and so did the Fortnite version.
It's beautiful to see. I will never complain. I love that everybody across the board, from your auntie to your mum, and even your smallest cousin is going to bop to my music. I’m with it, it’s good”.
A truly incredible song, American Boy still sounds phenomenal today! I have been listening to it since it was released, and I still sing along and get a thrill from it. A wonderful song that cemented Estelle as an extraordinary talent, it will be played, loved and picked over for years to come. If you have not heard American Boy for a while or cannot remember how it goes, then put it on and…
REMIND yourself how good it is.