Let’s break this down. Obviously someone thought that in order to break across the pond Estelle would need more than the production duties of Will.i.am and John Legend to get that bunk up into public consciousness. So, let’s call up Kanye, the self styled King Of Hip Hop to act as patron. He’ll drop some rhymes that will give that extra something to poor, fragile Estelle.

If that’s the intention then frankly what Kanye has committed here is nothing short of sabotage. It’s not his delivery (sounds like he’s been slipped one too many sleeping pills), it’s the WTF Caribbean accent he half-appropriates causing the word “rubbish” to sound more like “reurghbbish.” It sticks in the ear as awkwardly as Mick Jagger’s “SAATH AMERICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” in “Dancing In The Street.” Fuck knows why Kanye does it. Maybe he wanted to appear more in touch with his roots to the second generation Grenadine, Estelle? If that was the intention then it’s completely at odds with the typical self-aggrandizing but nonsensical spiel he spits out here. “Dressed smart like a London Bloke, before he speak his suit bespoke.” I mean, c’mon. A “bloke” is more like your average Joe than the spiv he is alluding to. Kanye, If you must adopt UK idioms for pan-Atlantic appeal then don’t show yourself up by not understanding them. And the less said about the “bespoke” line the better.

Anyway, despite this “American Boy” is a seductive party jam with its heart pitched somewhere between Balearic chill out and Oliver Cheatham’s “Get Down Saturday Night.” Estelle’s croaky croon is left raw, sans vocal equalizer, which make her ballsy lyrics seem even more flirtatious: “I like the way he’s speaking, his confidence is peaking / Don’t like his baggy jeans but I might like what’s underneath them.” Top that with a piercing laser-guided electric crackle signaling a killer chorus and you have a contender for the perfect summer soundtrack. Thankfully, Kanye is only in it for twenty seconds but if he’s really looking for some new idioms then he just needs to know that on this track his flow is pony and he comes across like a wanker.

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