“F#CK YOU!” LADY SOVEREIGN INVADES U.S. WITH NEW SINGLE
“LOVE ME OR HATE ME” U.K. PHENOM’S FIRST SHOT FROM FORTHCOMING
DEF JAM DEBUT PUBLIC WARNING; SINGLE HITS RADIO AUGUST 7
In major anticipation of Lady Sovereign’s first major full length, “Public Warning” has been pushed up from October 10th to a new release date of “October 3rd.”
“At
just nineteen, pint-sized Londoner Lady Sovereign has all the makings
of the next hip-hop superstar…She sneaks nursery rhymes into haughty
boast-raps and melds hyper, big-bottomed beats with dancehall,
drum-and-bass and…her clever, barb-infested flow.” – Rolling Stone
“Britain’s
finest MC is a five-foot-one white girl from the wrong side of town.
Lady Sovereign hates being compared to Eminem, which is hard to avoid
these days if you’re A) white, B) a rapper and C) really, really good.”
– Blender
“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.” – Elle
“Besides,
[Lady Sovereign]’s good: pithy, clever, and able to use her honking
voice to humorous effect…with the hedged courage of a teenager
determined to take on the world every time she walks out the door.” – The New Yorker
“Sovereign
can cultivate a broader appeal because there aren’t any questions about
her authenticity…The phenomenon of Lady Sovereign is not just about the
rareness of an unmanufactured pop star…her story, up until now, is the
story of a teenager in 2005. And like teenageness itself, there is
something terrifying and thrilling about that.” – The Fader
“A leading player of the grime scene, Lady Sovereign is poised to conquer America with her debut LP, courtesy of Def Jam.” – XXL
“The
diminutive rapper, who recently threw down a few verses in Jay-Z’s
boardroom, has the outsize personality that propels artists out of
subcultures…” New York Magazine
LONDON, UK – July 11, 2006 – “Lady Sovereign, blah blah blah.” At this point, if you haven’t heard of Lady Sovereign, you’ve been living under an effing rock.
The self-proclaimed ‘biggest midget in the game’ has gone from the
bloggers’ champ to magazine-cover-vamp on both sides of the pond,
having graced the covers of URB, The Fader, and i-D to name a few…and she hasn’t even put out an album.
The plus-sized hype surrounding this pint-sized 20-year-old hailing from Wembley, England is the subject of her new single, “Love Me Or Hate Me,” set to impact radio nationwide on August 7th.
All punk-n-grime snot-nosed British attitude over an undeniable
808-fueled electro-pop-n-lock beat courtesy of NYC producer Dr. Luke,
Lady Sov snarls on the chorus: “If you love me then, THANK YOU! If you
hate me then, F#CK YOU!”
For
Sov, it was a quick leap from bloggers’ pet to critic’s darling. The
press has been voracious, heaping praise on Lady Sov to the tune of
“The Queen of U.K. Grime,” to “Hip-Hop’s great white hope,” even
likening her to a female Eminem. Sovereign may respond to such
comparisons with a hearty “Eff Off!,” but the hype did earn her a now
legendary, if somewhat maligned, audition, and deal, with Def Jam President and CEO, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.
“Sovereign is a pure entertainer,” says Carter. Sovereign’s rapid-fire
flow and in-your-face attitude may have caught the ear of some major
players, but it certainly didn’t happen overnight.
From
growing up in Chalkhill Estates – one of North London’s rougher housing
developments – to dropping out of school as a teen and working odd jobs
to support a growing passion for American rap and the U.K.’s burgeoning
grime scene, to battling in underground London clubs and pushing her
homemade recordings on the internet, Sovereign’s shown a tenacity for
self-promotion as vicious as her mic skills. Taking the internet-age
approach to punk rock’s DIY aesthetic, Sov promoted her homemade rhymes
through her page on facepix.com,
an early version of myspace. The internet helped connect Sov to others
in the grime scene around the world, and it was through the blogspace
that her tracks like “Random” and “Ch-Ching” first got noticed by
tastemakers stateside. Today she remains true to those beginnings: she
manages her myspace page – where she’s had some 750,000 music listens
– herself, communicating directly with her 38,000-plus friends.
Having
just come off a round of successful U.S performances including the
Coachella and Intonation festivals and a national tour in support of
The Streets, Sov will return this summer to headline NYC’s Central Park
Summerstage on July 30, and will appear at the Lollapalooza and
Bumbershoot festivals.
Lady Sovereign’s long-awaited worldwide debut album, Public Warning, is now set for an October release. Stay tuned for more foul-mouthed info on the ‘biggest midget in the game’…
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