Est'elle
80s chick: 1980 wasn't a good year for rock: John Lennon took a crazed fan's bullet outside his apartment in New York, while Led Zep drummer John Bonham checked out in a haze of drink, drugs and whatever you're having yourself. But 1980 was a good year for UK hip-hop, because that's when Est'elle was born. In fact, such a momentous occasion was Est'elle's arrival on this earth, she's made a hit song about it. This week, 1980 was the highest new entry in the UK chart at No 14, guaranteeing that Est'elle will join Des'ree in the pantheon of pop women whose name features an apostrophe in the middle. Its lyrics are all about growing up in West London with a big family and a small budget. Getting her first pair of Nikes, playing Connect 4, listening to Mel & Kim - sounds like a pretty normal childhood.
Ms dynamo: Fast-forward to the noughties, and Est'elle is poised to become the biggest name in UK hip-hop, with props from DJ Tim Westwood, and a "one to watch" posting in music biz bible Music Week. She's been compared to Lauryn Hill and Ms Dynamite, and been nominated for a MOBO award. She's earned it through sheer hard graft and dedication, working in a hip-hop record store, Real Deal, at 17, where she got to know all the good tunes, and working as a journalist for website darkerthanblue, writing about all the happening artists on the scene. She also produced videos and even launched her own record label, Stellarents, dedicated to releasing records by little-known talents. "I set up Stellarents as a business so that whatever happens I will always have that to fall back on," she says. "The artists I sign have to be real, passionate and dedicated, whatever the music."
Going stellar: With encouragement from her colleagues at the record store, Est'elle took up the mic and found she was a natural. Not only could our Eighties lady rap, but she could also belt out sultry r 'n' b and spine-tingling soul. Her debut album, 18th Day, due out in September, will display her vocal range to the full, from jazz to gospel to torch ballads and, of course, lots of sassy, streetwise raps, developed through live slots at Lyrical Lounge, The Hop, Scratch and Subterania, and guest appearances on records by 5th Dynasty, Social Misfits and Blak Twang. Her own heroines are Missy Elliot and Mary J Blige. "I like female artists who show that women don't have to strip off or compromise themselves to be recognised as musicians," she says.
True life: Everything in the song, she says, really happened, including the neighbours who set their house on fire, and the guy who lay dead for three weeks in the flat downstairs, being eaten by his cat. "They say that everything you go through in life is what you become," says Est'elle. "If that's the case I'm becoming number one."
