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Off the record
Evening Standard 07.03.08
American dream: Taio Cruz's early promise had him singing for Nitin Sawhney and writing a song for Will Young, but now he wants to emulate his Stateside heroes
Guitar project: Billy Bragg helps prisoners
Mastermind: Trent Reznor of US rockers Nine Inch Nails
Look here too
David Smyth talks to London rapper Taio Cruz about making it big in America and reveals what Billy Bragg is doing behind bars.
THE URBAN EXODUS
The music business is a cruel game, especially, it seems, for British urban acts. Seven years ago Craig David had a clutch of Mobo awards, a gold album and the nation at his feet. His fourth album flopped horribly last year, the British public having lost all interest.
With similar fates befalling Jamelia and Ms Dynamite - once household names - it's no wonder the next wave of British urban acts are taking a lead from black British actors and looking to America.
Perhaps more surprising is the amount of respect our unwanted stars are commanding across the pond.
The West Kensington rapper and singer Estelle, feeling undervalued by her UK label, recently upped sticks to Brooklyn and secured a deal with Homeschool, the label belonging to multiple Grammy winner John Legend.
Her comeback album, Shine, released on 31 March, stars Legend as well as premier-league rappers Kanye West, will.i.am and Wyclef Jean. It contains at least one guaranteed hit in the shape of American Boy - a duet with West, whose title seems a pointed snub to Britain.
Another Londoner who prefers to mix with the American boys is Taio Cruz, whose high-energy single Come on Girl should enter the UK top five on Sunday.
A 24-year-old of Nigerian and Brazilian descent, Cruz began his music career as a teenager singing Nitin Sawhney's 2003 single Rainfall, and co-writing Will Young's Your Game, which won the 2005 Brit Award for Best Single.
However, he only really found his niche when his publishing company hooked him up with an American producer, Dallas Austin.
Austin, whose compositions have been sung by Kelis, Pink and Madonna, took quite a shine to our boy. "I was writing a lot of ballads at the piano, so he compared me to [R&B songwriting legend] Babyface, which is a high accolade," Cruz tells me.
He was then hired by RedZone, the Atlanta songwriting stable responsible for Rihanna's global smash Umbrella. There, Cruz began submitting tracks to some of the biggest singers in the business.
A well-spoken chap with typically British modesty, he talks down the honour. "The way it's printed it sometimes sounds like I'm a super-producer, but the songs I wrote for Britney and Usher didn't end up on their albums," he admits. "I was only really getting started when my own singing career took off."
A self-produced solo single, I Just Wanna Know, earned Cruz a record deal with Island in the UK and Motown in the US in 2006.
His debut album, Departure, is released on 17 March. Though it's heavy on the slowies, it has some fine melodies, and it's easy to tell where he thinks it stands the most chance of making a splash.
"All the people I look up to in terms of my style of music are American - producers like Timbaland and the Neptunes and artists like Justin Timberlake.
"I've always wanted to be on their level and the best way to be like them is to go out there and be in the same mix. I equate it to a British actor going to Hollywood. You're not rejecting your birthplace by going there, but you have to be where you can be most successful."
British record companies take note.
WHY BRAGG'S BEHIND BARS
Billy Bragg has a lot on his plate right now, what with his first album for six years (the rather lovely Mr Love & Justice), backing Ken in the mayoral elections and finding himself popular among young singers such as Kate Nash, Jamie T and Hard-Fi. "Heaven forbid I should be fashionable," he tells me.
There's hardly been time for the project closest to his heart - his Jail Guitar Doors initiative which last year donated 70 guitars to 12 UK prisons, including Pentonville and Wormwood Scrubs.
Bragg scouts for donations, takes the guitars to a man in Hackney to spray-paint them with slogans such as "Stay Free" and "This Machine Kills Time", then delivers them in person.
"Musicians understand how an instrument can help you to transcend your surroundings," he says. "Guitars can be the first step towards some form of rehabilitation. I want our prison system to cut re-offending numbers. That won't happen if people are just forgotten about once they're locked up."
The project has expanded to the US. Guitar-maker Epiphone has just announced that for every guitar that Bragg provides, it will donate another. "We've had support from individuals and bands, like the Enemy, Mick Jones from the Clash and Phill Jupitus, so for a big company to come on board is fantastic."
But the more it grows, the harder it is to run it. Bragg says: "It may make sense to broaden it into an official charity down the line. But I'd hate to spend money on bureaucracy rather than guitars."
NEW ON THE NET
US rockers Nine Inch Nails, with their mastermind Trent Reznor, below, have taken Radiohead's lead with an intriguing experiment on the web. At http://ghosts.nin.com you can get hold of new album Ghosts I-IV in five different ways, from a nine-track free download to a $300, 36-track, autographed set of four records. Now that's flexibility.
Also offering options is singer-songwriter Daniel Lanois, better known as Bob Dylan's and U2's frequent producer. As well as a limited, signed physical copy of his new album, he's selling Here Is What It Is as downloads in both MP3 and WAV formats, the latter boasting much higher sound quality but still costing the same as the MP3s - $9.99. It's available from www.redfloorrecords.com/HereIsWhatIs.htm.
Brooklyn quartet Yeasayer have been lumped in with the far poppier Vampire Weekend as a New York band looking to the sounds of Africa, but there's far more to their aural melting pot, as demonstrated by gorgeous new single Wait for the Summer, in download stores from Monday. Before then, there are two more fine freebies to download at www.yeasayer.net/downloads.html.
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