Lady Sovereign started rhyming on her PC four years ago, while living with her family in a working-class, Chalk Hill housing estate in Northwest London.

After posting her tracks on the Internet (she met Frampster, her DJ, on So Solid Crew's message forum), the aspiring 5-¬foot, 1-inch MC, then known as Louise Harman, started getting props and grad¬uated to her first live show at a bar in Brixton. Word about her bold lyrics, grime-laden beats and fuck-you attitude began to spread. Before she knew it, she was accepting an invitation to perform at a 2004 showcase at New York's Knitting Factory.

Prior to the show, Sovereign, then 19, drank up a storm and ate a stomach full of dodgy McDonald's. Then she promptly vomited like a rock star after an admitted¬ly half-decent performance. To her sur¬prise, her manager soon received a call from Jay-Z; Jigga Man wanted to fly her back to New York to talk about a deal. Sitting in the lobby of New York's swanky Soho Grand, Sovereign recalls, probably for the hundredth time, that infamous phone call.

"Jay-Z knew of my music-someone must've passed on a CD or told him about me-and he sent some spies to the show," she says. "They gave him some good feedback. "

She eventually met him face to face, a story that kills her bravado. "I was never so fucking scared. I've never been so nervous. He's a legend. You know what I mean? I've met some actors, but I'm in music, and he's the top dog. I was shak¬ing, so when he asked me to spit, I /choked."

Since then, life for Sov has morphed into a blur of shows, travel and interviews. "Most of the journalists ask, 'What is grime? How old are you? How did you get started? Some know about me, but ain't heard the music! '" I ask her to define grime, and she hesitates, unsure if I'm pulling her leg. "Oh, you're wind-ing me up!"

With her Island-Def Jam contract now in place, Sovereign dropped her Vertically Challenged EP on Chocolate Industries in November. The EP features Ad Rock's hot remix of "A Little Bit of Shh!," which impressed her mom, a longtime fan of the Beastie Boys.