Download: Estelle Darlings & DJTrauma.com Present: #ialmostmadeamixtape

Estelle made a mixtape, but didn’t quite call it a mixtape, so where’s the commitment? To her Twitter followers, that’s who! Feeding the streets with throw-away album-worthy material is a rare thing for her to do. Using a clever hash tag though, now she’s up there with Evil Empire’s Trending Topics and The-Dream’s #lovesessions mixtape that never was. Until All of Me hits, Estelle and DJ Trauma of the Superfriends jack a few beats for Estelle to go in on: Jigga’s “Dear Summer,” Common’s “They Say,” and the Supa Dups-produced “Keep It Like It Is” uses the blaring horn riffs from Tenor Saw’s “Golden Hen.” Get the full tracklist and download after the jump.
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Estelle Introduces Three R&B New Jacks You Should Know

While NYPD was beating pumping the breaks on the droves of fans waiting to see Drake, three other new R&B acts were taking a bite out of the Big Apple. Estelle Tweeted last night about a special R&B showcase she hosted at the Apple store in SoHo, bigging up CJ Hilton. Also making their debut was Jaicko, and John Brown. They’re three multi-talented musicians winning over hearts without breaking them bad, or nearly as tough as the city’s disappointment at the South Street Seaport. Get familiar with the roundup.
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Estelle f. Nas and John Legend, “Fall In Love” (Remixes)

Estelle’s dating saga continues. Hey, being the leader in a relationship isn’t easy. If anyone’s gonna take the reigns, at least it would be a lady who knows what she wants. Estelle’s a good example because she’s always in the driver’s seat. Nothing wrong with that. She wants an American boy, we got that part already. Falling in love is just a little trickier with emotions even mixed signals that could throw off the feeling of the “L” word. Trying to understand them in the span of one song can’t do it; how about two? Everyone’s definition varies, especially when semantics comes into play—”falling in love” vs. “being in love”—so for now, try pondering it over Nas and John Legend’s two cents.
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The Morning After: Reflection Eternal f. Estelle, “Midnight Hour” on Jimmy Kimmel

Check in with us daily to see Suite903 artists take over TV. Today we’re watching Reflection Eternal and Estelle perform “Midnight Hour” on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
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Video: Refelction Eternal f. Estelle, “Midnight Hour”

Last week a friend tweeted at us two simple necessities. Estelle seems to cosign and we applaud her on-point styling as well. Everything about Estelle in this video we are feeling. Surprisingly, we’re also feeling Talib’s intellectual threads. Sartorially, this is his best move. Then again, almost everyone looks good in a fresh grey suit and rappers almost never go wrong when bringing sexy back is their modus operandi.

At Suite903 we prefer a smoother look than some baggy jeans, a sweater and a Pelle Pelle jacket. Not saying those were Talib’s wardrobe choices, just speaking generally. Anyway the outfits match the brass-heavy sound of big bands from soul’s early beginnings. Even the liquor sponsorship is all grown up in “Midnight Hour.” Hurray for random product placement!
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Video: Estelle f. Kardinal Offishall “Freak” at Rip The Runway

So you should already know how we feel about this song. We pictured Estelle performing this at some dark warehouse in Baltimore with 700 crazy kids sweating out so much ecstasy that even those not trippin’ were catching contact. Alas, the clean-cut, fashionistas on BET’s Rip The Runway will do. Of course if we had been the models walking for designer Gavin Douglas in last night’s broadcast, our fiercest Naomi Campbell strut would’ve been interrupted by us dancing in those heels ’til we eventually broke both our ankles and fell to the ground, still spazzing to the bass. Yes, we go hard but you already knew that too.
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Video: Estelle, “Freak”

BALTIMORE CLUB TRIPPIN ON RAVE CANDY! Man we got dehydrated just lookin at this video. Our eyeballs have been percolating all morning and we didn’t even get a double shot of espresso today. Behold Estelle in all her dance diva splendor!!! Its hump day kids! Do yourself a favor and bug out safely at work to this joint. Beware: your bum will be sore if you continue clenching to the beat in your chair. Trust us! -Judnick Mayard

Stream: Estelle f. Kardinal Offishall, “Freak”

Okay yeah, supposedly David Guetta produced this but we’re not a hundred percent that it isn’t DJ Sega on some messing around, outtake stuff We know Estelle’s been kicking it with Kid Sister, so this vague Baltimore club rhythm is not that surprising—particularly with the Soul II Soul chorus that mimics a sample and the buoyant chorus—but again, we’re kind of surprised David Guetta had it in him. Learn something new every day! Like the weird direction Estelle is going in, but not sure what the national palate is for this stuff. It’ll go down in the clubs, for sure. Expect a Sn00ki low-level fistpump YouTube almost immediately.

Ghostface Names Forthcoming Soul Album “Wizard of Poetry”

A couple years ago (or something) we started hearing that Ghostface was going to record a whole R&B album in which he would sing—as best as he could—over what we can only imagine would be some really great grimy soul instrumentals. More than anything, that album seemed like a pipe dream, but Def Jam hotshot Lenny Santiago knows otherwise. Apparently the album will not feature Ghost singing on every song, but will pair him up with singers like Estelle, Raheem DeVaughn, Lloyd (awesome) and John Legend (no one asked for that pairing, but we’ll reserve judgment). While this is exciting news, we can’t help but be a little disappointed. Ghostface singing has become one of the most endearingly weird idiosyncrasies of dude’s already weird career. The bright side? The album is called The Wizard of Poetry. Beat that, everyone else in the music industry! (via Nah Right)—Sam Hockley-Smith