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Lady Sovereign/Press |
SPIN | January 2006 |
BREAKING OUT/ Lady Sovereign, tiny and natty in a pristine Adidas tracksuit and box-fresh sneakers, is hanging outside a fancy hotel on a filthy Manhattan street, puffing Marlboros and sweating energy. “You sure I can’t tempt you?” asks the 20-year-old London MC in her sharp Cockney accent, waving a cigarette in the air and grinning. “I got everybody in my class smoking,” she says. “Smokin’ kills and so do my lyrics,” Sov raps on the beer-goggle brag track “Random,” At first her bullet-train flow and magnetic personality (and her appearances on the U.K. grime comp Run the Road ) made her a blogger fave. In 2004 the majors realized that , as one of the first credible white female rappers, Sov’s a potential cash cow, and Universal signed her to a deal worth a whopping rumored three million pounds worldwide. Like a wild-style descendent of her idol, Missy Elliott, Sov (real name: Louise Harman) spins witty tales of the short and sassy. Her new EP, Vertically Challenged (Chocolate Industries), reveals roots in grime, hip-hop, punk, and reggae, and features a remix by Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock. On “Ch Ching” she shrugs, “I don’t have 50 rings/ But I have 50 things to say/ In a cheeky kinda way.” “If I have a crazy night, I write about it my way,” she says. “It’s gotta be a bit humorous. I’ve always been the loud one.” At 15, Sov retired her side hustles (school, soccer, “starting fires”) to write lyrics in her bedroom in a Northwest London housing project. She claims her teachers told her, “You’re not gonna do well in society, so you might as well leave,” and she was further spurned by London’s underground raves and pirate radio stations. Undeterred, she posted tracks on MySpace until her now-steady producer, U.K. garage maestro Medasyn, gave her a shot in the studio. Lady Sovereign’s most immediate trait is her playful charisma, so she gets short shrift for her fierceness as a rapper. But she recently impressed the king of Roc, Jay-Z, who flew her to New York City to meet with Def Jam, then asked her to spit for an audience that included Usher. “Everyone at home’s like ‘What’s he like?! Jay-Z!” I just tell ‘em it was nerve-racking’,” she says, sighing and rolling her eyes. “I gotta stay cool. ‘Cause obviously I’m trying to be a star in the makin’, and I can’t really do that ‘Ooh! Jay-Z!’ thing, d’ya know wot I mean?” By: Julianne Shepherd |
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