You Oughta Know : Estelle

Fried chicken doesn't usually upend someone's life. But it sure messed with Estelle. A few years ago, the singer-rapper spotted Kanye West at an L.A. chicken joint and asked him for a personal audience with John Legend. "I went to get some food," she says, "and it changed my destiny." This past year the self-described diva signed to Legend's label and made her sophomore album SHINE. Raised by Sengalese/Granadan immigrant parents in a West London house filled with reggae and gospel, it's no wonder the 30-year-old's music sounds so cosmopolitan. Even her alter ego, Audrey Pepa, blends her influences, sporting the grace of Hepburn with the street savvy of Salt-n-Pepa. The hybrid is an apt description of her R and B and the intelligent rhymes she spits. Thank good... More»

Fried chicken doesn't usually upend someone's life. But it sure messed with Estelle. A few years ago, the singer-rapper spotted Kanye West at an L.A. chicken joint and asked him for a personal audience with John Legend. "I went to get some food," she says, "and it changed my destiny." This past year the self-described diva signed to Legend's label and made her sophomore album SHINE. Raised by Sengalese/Granadan immigrant parents in a West London house filled with reggae and gospel, it's no wonder the 30-year-old's music sounds so cosmopolitan. Even her alter ego, Audrey Pepa, blends her influences, sporting the grace of Hepburn with the street savvy of Salt-n-Pepa. The hybrid is an apt description of her R and B and the intelligent rhymes she spits. Thank goodness for hunger pangs.«Less