Tonight’s selections from Lady Sovereign’s debut album, 2006’s Public Warning. Not all stories have happy endings. ** TRIGGER WARNING — SELF HARM **
It should be a straightforward question, but for rapper Lady Sovereign a simple "How are you?" requires careful consideration. "I feel ... good." Pause. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm ... " Long pause. "I'm ... happy," she decides.
Louise Harman is just 23, but already she's had quite a life. By the age of 20, she had scored a Top 10 hit with the Ordinary Boys - Nine2Five - and recorded with the Streets. In 2005, she got a deal with Island Records in the UK, while Jay-Z himself signed her to his Def Jam label in the US. She was soon touring America with Gwen Stefani, performing in front of thousands in Times Square. Lady Sovereign, the self-described "street rat from a normal working-class family", had made it. She became, and remains, good friends with Stefani; the two would hang out every night "just bantering", she says. One evening they ended up "chasing each other around a field, drop-kicking each other".
Then things started to fall apart. "I went on strike and stopped doing stuff, so Def Jam got the hump with me," Harman shrugs, sipping on a vodka and Red Bull in a pub in Wembley, north London, near where she grew up. Her initial meeting with Jay-Z took place in front of R&B star Usher and producer LA Reid, and was, she remembers, an uncomfortable experience. "All these executives, on the top floor of a high-rise building, all eyes on me. It was like an audition. Jay-Z is a cool guy, but we only hung out properly once - it's not like we were best friends." Her mother was (and still is) seriously ill with a brain tumor. Meanwhile, Def Jam had spent vast amounts marketing her debut album, Public Warning, and saw little chance of profiting from its 300,000 sales. The pressure was on.
The tipping point was a disastrous performance at New York's Studio B in May 2007. Harman told the audience she was broke and bored of performing the same songs; she left the stage after two tracks to a chorus of boos. "I lost the plot a few times. I was cutting myself and stupid things like that. I was tired," she says now. "I felt like it was just push, push, push. I didn't have a chance to record any new stuff, it was the same old songs."
She flew back home. "My manager rang me and said, 'OK, it's definitely over.' And it hit me." She insists that Def Jam didn't drop her; the parting was a mutual decision. "It just had to be done, for their sake, for my sake. It wasn't messy, it was just ... gone." — The Guardian
9 To 5
Spilling out her take on songs that have recently been popular with a sampled backdrop and trying to mount her own catchphrase is the story behind Random, which was most likely called that due to the random spots her lyrics come from and the random artists she takes them from. Take the beginning for example, beginning with the line of "Everybody in the club gettin' tipsy/oh fuck dat, just whine like a gypsy" which take from the J-Kwon song about the same subject ( minus the part about the gypsy). Eventually what starts to sound like a lack of originality gets made up for with her playful poking lyrics which continue not to borrow from the work of others, but to make fun of it. "Well, I'm right thur, /Na' tell a lie cus I'm Right there, /Right hurr Na' right here, Now get off your churr, I mean Chair" shows her using words from the Chingy song "Right Thurr" but using them in a way which makes it sound fresh and not cliche is one quality that Lady Sovereign possesses and chooses to show off.
The best song on the album is reserved for the middle of it, when we are finished with half of the stack we are reminded about the positives and the talent of Lady Sovereign as all of the good things on this release are embodied in this single, Love Me or Hate Me. Not only does this highlight her at a high point, the chorus becomes a rallying cry for the young MC, as spotlighted in the quote above this review. Indeed this is her putting it all on the line in one 3:31 song, and this bet pays out. Introducing herself in slow fashion as the "biggest midget in the game" and holding true to that statement (seeing as Flava Flav isn't British) throughout; the chorus really says it all as "Love me or hate me I'm still an obsession/Love me or hate me that is the question/If you love me then thank you!/If you hate me then fuck you!" speaks volumes and remains a memorable line, probably the most so for this piece. Not only are the lyrics at their height ("Come on then, go on report me/I'm English try and deport me!") but so are the beats. Existing as a melodic keyboard piece being looped and played at moderate level but consistent tempo, joined by bass beats that are not high tempo, everything swirls around and comes out as a great self promotional single (that you might catch yourself singing along to). — Sputnik Music
Random
In many ways, Sov's trajectory seems similar to M.I.A.'s, as both are fawned-over Brit hip-hop-rooted acts who sealed major label support through internet fandom. But there's a big difference: M.I.A.'s record tanked; Public Warning! seems set to make a mark beyond the web. The Tetris-inspired video for its current single, "Love Me or Hate Me", hit No. 1 on TRL recently and the song is currently just eight spots behind Jay-Z's comeback track on the Billboard Hot 100. By appealing to the same iTunes-hungry teens that are making the *High School Musical* soundtrack the year's top-selling album, Def Jam has happened upon a counter-marketing sweet spot; as divas like Fergie, Christina, and Beyoncé stalk MTV with their perfectly plucked eyebrows and runway-ready attire, Sov is the tomboy in the bleachers taking the piss out of the whole lot. — Pitchfork
Love Me Or Hate Me
The hip-hop world never ceases to amaze me. It's really incredible how many no-talent hacks break into the genre every year. Sure, you could say the same thing about almost any other type of music out there, but if you suck elsewhere, at least you (usually) aren't met with commercial success. Unfortunately, this isn't really true for rap. It's kind of funny how even the most hardcore hip-hop aficionados can ignore that which makes rap music good, simply in favor of what's new. Well, let's put it this way: an awful lot of those hardcore gangsta-rap types are going to be shown up very soon. By a five foot one, twenty-something, lily-white British lady by the name of Louise Harman. The world, however, knows her as Lady Sovereign. Oh, and before I go on, let me make one thing clear: Jay-Z likes her. He actually liked her enough to give her a record deal. That means something; trust me on this one.
Lady Sovereign has been making quite a name for herself across the pond. She's already an established grind MC over in jolly-old England. Grime, in case you were wondering, is an aggressive style of hip-hop, combining styles of garage dance and electronic music, with hyper-fast wordplay. It's an impressive arm of hip-hop, one that's always interesting to listen to. Enter Lady Sovereign. Well, the 'White Midget' as she is commonly known as has pretty much conquered the grime world. And now she's set to conquer the world period (as in planet Earth, you feel me?). It certainly helps that Lady Sovereign has drawn comparisons to another Caucasian rap-sensation: Eminem. 'Feminem?' Sure, as derogatory as that may seem, you could aptly sum her up that way. You could, at least, if the two were anything alike. Slim Shady and the White Midget's similarities pretty much end at skin color.
With Vertically Challenged a listener gets a frustratingly tiny taste of what Lady Sovereign is actually capable of. You see, it's an EP of eight songs. Unfortunately for us, the album really only has five songs on it, minus the remixes. On the whole, though, Vertically Challenged is an extremely polished package. Lady Sovereign proves to be a surprisingly talented vocalist; one that raps really, really fast. Really. Her cohorts on the EP, Frost P, Adrock, among others further serve to accentuate the incredibly textured, yet speedy aspects of Vertically Challenged. Not only does Lady Sovereigns light-speed delivery put the sluggish drawls of hip-hop chart toppers such as Mike Jones and T.I. to shame, it also makes her music fun to listen to. Everything from the self-proclaiming 'Random' to the eclectic 'Fiddle With The Volume,' to the intense near-eight minute epic of 'The Battle,' Vertically Challenged covers all the basics for making enjoyable rap music. Speaking of the music, the instrumentation and samplings to be found on this EP are pretty nice as well. You won't find any irksome repetition here. This is actually rather refreshing. — Sputnik Music
Cha Ching
A two-year delay between the first single and the first album can be deadly for a hip-hop artist. For an MC identified not with an American scene, but with the British variant grime, it's potentially even more dangerous. It doesn't help that Lady Sovereign, the self-proclaimed "white midget" who's long been tipped as grime's surest shot at crossover success, has long professed her own distance from the style's center. Or that hip-hop fans tend to look askance at London accents. Or that much of Public Warning has leaked over the past two years. In spite of Sov's anti-stereotyping inveigling on Public Warning's "My England" ("We ain't all squeaky clean / We ain't all posh like the Queen"), it's difficult not to make the comparison to Sex Pistols, which encountered similar skepticism when Never Mind The Bollocks turned out to be the band's singles plus some new tracks.
Also like the Pistols, Sov is at her best when she's laying on the scorn. "Tango" is a girl-fight classic, snapping on a rival who layers on liquid-tan ("On your English breakfast / Place her next to the bacon / She could be the beans") And "Hoodie" mocks fashionistas: "You're hurting my eyes / You really should revise your dress sense before you walk on by." But even a moment as snarling as the obvious anthem "Love Me Or Hate Me" (presented twice, the second time with an appealingly offhanded Missy Elliott guest verse) is buoyed by sonic accoutrements that hint at Specials-style ska-pop as much as grime's PlayStation-fueled beat-smithery and hip-hop's drop-the-bomb bass. Even if Sov doesn't cross over the way she or Def Jam might want her to, she still sounds like an original—even for people who know half the songs already. — AV Club
A Little Bit of Shhhh
Louise Harman – for that is the name sewn into Sov’s P.E. shorts – demonstrates throughout this 13-track collection that she’s a totally capable MC, and many a thumbs-up above the cartoon rapper some have her boxed as. ‘Random’ rides on a truly filthy bass line as Sov spits “Smoking kills and so do my lyrics… you wanna test me, then bring it on”, and for the most part she possesses the aggressive confidence to meet any challenge the critic can present her with. Tongue-twisting super-speed couplets? Check out the title track and fall over dizzied by Harman’s rapid-fire reworking of Peter Piper while Experience-era Prodigy beats fizz and pop behind her potty-mouthed prose. The gritty realism necessary for any contemporary band of the people? Take a listen to ‘My England’, which neatly states for the record that “we don’t all wear bowler hats and hire servants”.
It’s the above-mentioned critique of the nation’s unseen-by-tourists underbelly that allows comparisons to be made between Public Warning and Bloc Party’s A Weekend In The City; both are released in the same week. While Kele Okereke’s lyrics focus on the frustration and paranoia of being a twenty-something in a city that never sleeps, Harman’s observations perfectly reflect the day-to-day comings and goings of teenagers the country over; although the songs’ protagonist is London-born and based, lyrics are relevant to the under-aged of all counties. ‘Gatheration’ is the Friday night parents-away house party track; ‘Hoodie’ accurately dissects the media’s wrongful vilification of individuals sporting the titular garment; and ‘Those Were The Days’ is a wonderfully nostalgic trip down a relatively short memory lane – “remember Naf Naf jackets and Spliffy jeans?” – that every listener aged 15 to 25 should relate to. — Drowned in Sound
Hoodie
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Kirsten Dunst, Andrew Scott, Conan Gray
Jimmy Fallon: Dr. Phil McGraw, Alex Edelman, G-Eazy featuring Coi Leray & Kaliii
Stephen Colbert: Steve Buscemi, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
After Midnight: Trevor Wallace, London Hughes, Affion Crockett
Seth Meyers: Kristen Wiig, Mike Birbiglia, Fred Armisen
LAST WEEK'S POLL: JOE LIEBERMAN'S LEGACY
Good 0%
Bad 71%
Pie 29%