Craig David - This is the Girl

Artist: Craig David
Album: Trust Me
Year: 2007
Rating: 4.7/5

I gotta admit, before I heard this song, I hated rap, I refused to listen to it because every single rap song I heard was horrible. I was raised with an open mind to music, whatever the genre, if I liked the song, I liked it, that's what my dad taught me. From an early age I was exposed to all kinds of music, my dad loved(and still does..) Swing Out Sister, Pat Metheney, Chick Corea, people like that and produced countless local OPM standards, albums by the most legendary band to ever graze the Philippine music scene, the Eraserheads so you could say that I was brought up extremely musically. One genre my dad failed to expose to me though was rap. The house was filled with melodious music but never rap. Which explains why I never really liked rap.

When Craig David's album came out last year, I was expecting perfect melodies with that unmistakable Craig David sound and I got that, with almost all the tracks. Then I reached the last track on the album, 'This is the Girl'. When I heard the start, I stopped it because I hated the rap once again and left it at that for the next month or so. Then after a month I started listening to the album again, and I encountered this track, which I loved.

At the start, I overlooked the rap part, thinking it was just an accent to the melody of the chorus. I was wrong. As I kept on listening to the song, I realized that the rap gives the song something, something that without it, the song wouldn't be a song. Ok, a bit corny but it's true. I always thought that rap sections in songs accented the song instead of being an actual part of the song but obviously, I know that now.

So yeah, this song is very, VERY rap-influenced but the chorus is pure R&B, it's fantastic how Craig David can fuze those two elements with more leaning toward the rap without compromising the melody. This song is worth a listen, it's got substance, dynamics and very good vocals.