Looking younger than her 20 years, with a bunch of keys hanging around her neck, Adidas on her feet, and her hair scraped to the side in a trademark ponytail, hip-hop's latest great white hope resembles a latchkey kid with a serious sportswear habit. Lady Sovereign, or Sov as most people call her, holds out a key. 'Everyone's always like, ‘Why do you wear them? You're nowhere near your home,' but I'm like, ‘That's the whole point.'’

She has traveled far recently. At the end of last year, the 5'1’ Londoner became the first non-American to produce an album on the Island Def Jam label. With her debut, Public Warning, due out late this summer, she is also the first white, female British rapper to attempt a commercial assault on the United States. Her size, color, sex, and nationality may set Sov well apart from the herd, but her flow is just as arresting: an electrifying mixture of Jamaican dancehall 'chat,’ British cultural reference points, and a playful wit all her own.

The video for one of her songs, 'Random,’ made Def Jam A&R man Rob Stevenson, whose recent finds include the Killers and Fall Out Boy, drop the phone in amazement— 'just seeing her jump out of the television like she had that thing,’ he recalls. Late last ear, Sov auditioned for label bosses Antonio 'l.A.’ Reid—who forged careers for TLC, Usher, OutKast, and Pink—and Jay-Z, arguably the greatest rapper alive. Usher was there, too. 'I was just so nervous, especially when Jay-Z said to me, 'Spit a lyric…'’ She dry up? 'I dunno, I choked a bit.’

Despite the jitters, she got the job. Her long-awaited album has been delayed time and time again, but for good reasons, as more and more people got on board. The Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock, for one, was so smitten that he produced a track on Public Warning. Early adopters are comparing her to Missy Elliott. Then there's the 'Feminem’ tag.

'I suppose it's flattering, but me an' him do completely different styles of music,’ she says, wincing. 'The only reason that people are going to compare the two of us is ‘cause we're both white and we both rap. Look past that.’

But read her bio and you get the comparison: Sov is a former truant who wrote lyrics instead of homework and let a potential soccer career fizzle away through inertia. Instead, the young Louise Harman posted rough ‘n' ready tracks on the Internet for anyone who would listen. She grew up on pirate radio in London's projects, a place where kids would kick your cat to death for fun, as they did hers.

With lyrics so Brit-specific, will her charms work on Americans? 'As hip-hop grows and matures,’ Stevenson says, 'instead of coping what New York or L.A. is doing, rappers are celebrating where they're from. And that's what Sov needs to do. If she tries to be anything other than who she is…people won't respect it.’

Another way of looking at it: A lot of Americans couldn't understand the Beatles when they first opened their mouths.—KITTY EMPIRE