Saturday 15 January 2011

Tinie Tempah feat. Ellie Goulding - Wonderman


Tinie Tempah (Tinie? Mr Tempah?) is leading the Brit Award charge with four nominations and performed this track with Ellie Goulding for the first time at the Brit launch party (see video below), sixth release from album Disc-overy.

Tinie has undoubtedly had a huge year, but ever since he burst onto the scene with his drum and bass infused hip-hop, telling us about his very wild lifestyle and the amount of clothes at his aunt's house, I haven't been convinced.  With this track, though, my opinion is changing.  He's finally learnt some new rap-rhythms to play around with and the bass and beat are intoxicating.  The band in the live version below are particularly tight and the performance overall is sterling.

Unfortunately, though Wonderman is lacking a real killer hook.  Largely, this is down to Goulding's input - her unique, delicate voice is totally overpowered by Tinie's storming rapping and production.  It's a shame, as a collaboration between two of the UK's brightest stars showed such promise.

He may have four Brit nominations, but Tinie hasn't quite hit 'wonderman' status.

3/5