Beats: Ed Sheeran ‘Little Lady’

It a strange thing when you feel genuine pride and excitement for the achievements of a musician you don’t know personally. I’m talking about being sincerely happy for someone as if you knew them from back in secondary school. So when it happens, you might as well embrace it.

That happened to me this week. There’s this guy called Ed Sheeran who’s probably just had the most seminal week of his career. And I am hyped for him!

I’m probably not alone in having first discovered Ed’s talents via his ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You‘ SB.TV video almost a year ago. He bodies an acoustic set using just his voice, guitar, mic and a loop pedal. Watch it. Couple that with the hilarious ‘Nando’s Skank’ video he spontaneously recorded with Example in a car park and you had someone who, at the very least, was worth keeping an eye on for some YouTube goodness.

As it turns out those two videos were child’s play compared to what Mr. Sheeran had mapped out. This week saw the independent release of Ed’s No.5 Collaborations Project Ep. From the offset twitter started blowing up with word that ‘The Hardest Ginger on Road’ was creeping on Rihanna for her top spot on the iTunes chart. Peaking at No. 2 (or was it No. 1?), Ed tweeted that iTunes confirmed his EP was the fastest selling album since The XX’s debut album.

And this is a 100% independent release?! Damn homie.

What Ed managed to achieve in terms of impact without major label backing is amazing. The sales storm he orchestrated has left a wake of record labels giving salty looks to their A&R departments. All of this is really secondary to the music though which, of course, is great.

Each track features Ed repping his signature style in collaboration with a slew of faultless features from some of grime’s finest MCs such as Devlin, Wiley, P Money, JME, Ghetts, Random Impulse, Sway, Wretch 32 and Dot Rotten.

It works perfectly. Ask Elton. And Atlantic Records.

Standout track (but let’s be honest, they’re all great) comes with a feature from one of the lesser known MCs on the bill, Mikill Pane. Little Lady is a haunting and deeply sad tale of an immigrant teenage prostitute that’s delivered with story telling skills on par with a certain Mr. Mathers’ Stan. As vivid and distressing as the picture painted by Mikill is, Ed’s voice comes through with a soothing elegance that gives just enough hope to prevent a full on emoesh breakdown.

Best believe man had to listen to H.A.M a couple times with the bass on crank to up the swag levels a few notches.

Listen to Ed Sheeran ft. Mikill Pane Little Lady below.