Between 2005 and 2006, the feisty, pint-sized, London rapper Lady Sovereign had about ten careers' worth of freaky shit happen to her. First, she emerged as one of the major faces of the then-hot British grime scene, partly because of inevitable "whoa, British white chick rapping" reactions and partly because she could actually rap. When she came to the U.S., she went through a few onstage freakouts, rapped for Jay-Z in his office, became the first Brit since Slick Rick to sign with Def Jam, and scored a fluke number one hit on "TRL" with "Love Me or Hate Me".
And then nothing.
Well, Sov is finally back. She's got a new album (Jigsaw, due April 6), a new label (her own Midget Records, distributed through EMI), a new haircut (crimps), and a new video ("I Got You Dancin'"-- complete with tributes to The Warriors and Hook). Earlier this week, Pitchfork got Lady Sov on the phone to talk about everything she's got going on these days.
Pitchfork: You're coming back to America later this month for a few shows. [She plays Piano's in New York on January 26 and Chicago's Empty Bottle on January 28. -Ed.] Are you looking forward to that?
Lady Sovereign: I am actually. I haven't fucking performed for about a year now, so it's just like, I just want it come around already, I just want to perform, you know? It's going to be back to basics a bit, but I'm up for that.
Pitchfork: Yeah? Back to basics like how?
LS: Just small venues, just me and my DJ. It should be fun.
Pitchfork: We haven't heard too much from you lately, what have you been up to?
LS: I've just been livin' a normal life, going shopping, going out, gettin' pissed. I keep sitting on my arse doing nothing. Obviously working on the album which is over now. But you know, just normality really.
Pitchfork: Do you feel like you were needing that?
LS: Yeah. I needed to do that. I don't know...I would have gone bonkers by now, which I was on the verge of, so I needed to stop.
Pitchfork: So you're off Def Jam now, right?
LS: Yeah, I'm off Def Jam. I've got my own label now.
Pitchfork: How do you feel about your experiences over there?
LS: You know, I'm not gonna say I hate it, I'm not gonna say I love it... Sorry, no pun intended. But I got really fed up of it after... just doing unnecessary things all the time. I just wanted it to be about my music and it really pissed me off that they only wanted to release one song from my album and I had to work around that constantly which was a fucking headfuck. I got really tired and annoyed with it, so I kinda stopped.
Pitchfork: Yeah, "Love Me or Hate Me" was, like, an out-of-nowhere success, number one on "TRL" and stuff like that. And then after that, it just kinda went flat.
LS: Yeah, I know, I was just really annoyed that they just wanted to release one song and they didn't give anything else a chance. But whatever. It did good and I'm thankful for having the opportunity and stuff, you know?
Pitchfork: So how would you say the new one is different? What are you doing different this time?
LS: It's always gonna be different when I make a record just because I kind of touch on every sort of genre. Obviously I've matured a bit and my content is a bit more... I'm holding back from being a bit leery. But not on purpose, it's just the mood I'm in, the person I am at the moment. Everyone grows, everyone has their moments and stuff.
Pitchfork: All I've heard yet is "I Got You Dancing". That's a fun record. The video looks like it was fun to shoot, too.
LS: Oh, it was pretty easy to do. I didn't have to do that much except if I could dance, I probably would have been made to do more, but I can't. I just did one little hand movement, just one little flick, and that was about it. That was about the most of my moves in that video. But it was fun though, you know?
Pitchfork: You can't dance? That's kind of surprising.
LS: I can secretly dance, I think. But no one has seen me so I don't know if that's a fair judgment for me to say.
Pitchfork: Okay. So you're keeping that in your back pocket? You're not gonna dance until it's time.
LS: Yeaaah. One day I'll come out as some great fucking dancer or something, but not yet. [laughs]Pitchfork: Your secret is safe. So you dressed kind of like a baseball fury from The Warriors in part of that video and you also dressed like Rufio from Hook.
LS: Yeah.
Pitchfork: That was really supposed to be Rufio? I was wondering.
LS: Yeah, it was.
Pitchfork: Okay. Was there anybody else in there? I wasn't sure who you were when you were in the car.
LS: That was, you know, the guy in the car, in The Warriors. The hair kind of gives it away a bit, I think. We kinda took a modern take on it all. We didn't try to base it solely around The Warriors, you kinda make it a bit different.
Pitchfork: I want to ask you about grime.
LS: Oh gosh.
Pitchfork: Yeah, I'm sorry. It's one of those things you've gotta do. You were kind of, for a minute, one of the public faces of that whole scene. But that whole scene doesn't really seem to exist anymore. There's individual people, but this idea that there's this whole bubbling-under scene of all these hungry rappers over there in London on pirate radio stations and stuff... you don't really hear about that anymore. Do you know if that still exists? Were you ever really a part of it?
LS: The thing is, I've never really been a part of anything but my own project, really. Honestly, when I first started writing lyrics and stuff, I was writing it to garage, and obviously garage kind of progressed to grime. That was just what I started writing to. So for a hot minute I did a couple grime tracks, but I wouldn't say I was the face of grime. That would be really unfair to say because I didn't really solely base myself on that, and I kind of grew out of it. I just wanted to make music, and grime wasn't exactly the path that I took naturally. It was something that was put on me as a label. There's people that carry it now like JME and Skepta. They're the two guys that carry the grime scene still. I never really was a grime artist. I'm just an artist.
Pitchfork: So would you say that's still a part of you?
LS: No, If I want to make a grime tune I'll go ahead and do it, but I don't really have the urge to right now.
Pitchfork: Okay. What kind of music have you been listening to lately?
LS: Everything. I'm really compulsive with music. I listen too much, and I can't listen to one thing. I love iTunes Genius.
Pitchfork: Yeah, that thing's a lot of fun, isn't it?
LS: It's the best thing, but oh my God, I've spent so much money. I can sit there for hours and just get all these recommendations... it's like, "Huh, I've never heard this shit before, but I'll buy it."
Pitchfork: So, are you going to go back to serious touring for this album? You were here in New York like every three months for a minute there.
LS: See, I don't know what the full plot is at the moment. I know I'm doing a show in New York, a show in Chicago, a show in L.A. Pretty much back to basics, just me and my DJ, small venues, sort of guerrilla style, announcing it just a week beforehand. I know I'll do SXSW. Anything else will just kind of pop up, really. I'm not really sure what's happening yet.
Pitchfork: Is there any kind of thing you're hoping to do?
LS: I just wanna perform, I wanna get back on the scene, I wanna do all the festivals and stuff like that. I don't necessarily want to do all the bullshit that comes with it, like tons and tons of interviews, unnecessary things and all that.
Pitchfork: Yeah, I interviewed you once before, a couple years ago and you sounded like you were having your teeth pulled or something. It seemed like the worst thing you could've possibly been doing at that time.
LS: [laughs] You know, I've just done so much of it and repeat myself too much. I would find that I hated it and it ruined my day. I'm not saying I hate doing interviews but...
Pitchfork: It was too much?
LS: Yeah, it was too much.
