Rihanna & Keri Hilson Racing for ‘Numba 1′

By now, most of you should have listened to Kardinal Offishall’s fourth studio album, Not 4 Sale, or at least heard some talk about it when it was released on September 9, 2008. I for one, still haven’t found the time to listen to his entire album, aside from his most successful single “Dangerous”, and the song I am going to talk about today, “Numba 1 (Tide Is High)”.

When Offishall originally released the cover of the reggae song “The Tide Is High”, he featured singer Rihanna by his side for the seventh track of the album. But the Konvict Muzik member also released another version of the song, and this time he teamed up with singer Keri Hilson for the new rendition, which was released by iTunes on October 14, 2008.

I recently downloaded the latest single (with Keri Hilson) to compare with my original version (with Rihanna), and I have to admit, that while I like “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna and her radio dominating single “Disturbia”, I have to give props to Keri Hilson for adding even more pizazz to this single with her performance.

Yes, Hilson adds a bit of a “pop” feeling to this hip hop track, and yes, her performance may appear bland to many, but I feel she definitely outperforms Rihanna in this catchy tune, making this release of “Numba 1″ way better than the original.

So what do you think? Here is Rihanna’s version and here is Hilson’s version of “Numba 1 (Tide Is High)”. Listen and you decide!