by SCOTT C

She may only stand five-foot-one, but Lady Sovereign is about to be bigger than the Streets, Dizzee, Wiley or any of the rest. Representing northwest London’s Chalk Hill Estate, and cheeky little hoodrats all over the world, the pint-sized 19-year-old MC is on the verge of becoming a—if not the—leading figure in the U.K.’s teeming grime explosion.

The self-proclaimed “cheeky midget,” who announces herself as “Ess-Oh-Vee” (while no doubt still just Louise Harmon to her mum), may look shrimpy and harmless enough, but her lippy, ill-mannered sass, delivered with devastating dexterity, comes out every time she picks up a microphone. She broke into the diverse and wide-ranging grime scene with songs like “Ch-Ching,” “Random” and the barbed diss track “Sad Ass Strippah,” directed at unsuspecting British pop star Jentina.

Signed to Universal in the U.K., Lady Sovereign recently released her Vertically Challenged EP in North America on indie mainstay Chocolate Industries, featuring remixes by Beastie Boy Adrock and Montreal’s own Ghislain Poirier. The best news for Lady Sov to come out of North America, though, emanated from the offices of Island/DefJam. As it happened, her tracks had caught the ear of his royal highness Jay-Z, and she was summoned to the throne for an impromptu meeting that featured some freestyling and some big business. Long story short—look for big tings from this loudmouth in 2006. Lady Sovereign spoke to the Mirror over the phone from her label offices in London.

Mirror: I know a lot of people within the grime scene in the U.K. had negative things to say about you when Chantelle Fiddy first wrote about you in Touch Magazine. Are those same people now supporting you, or biting their tongues?

Lady Sovereign: You see, I wouldn’t know, because I built up my fan base on the Internet, yeah, so I couldn’t see everyone’s faces and I don’t know who’s who and all that, so I wouldn’t know. But people that are around me, I dunno. Most people are still cool, but some people act different around me, I dunno why.

M: So all of that stuff about people throwing banana peels on stage while you were performing in the U.K. had nothing to do with people trying to throw you off?

LS: Yeah, but it was all a big joke. There were a couple of shows where we had people dressed up in monkey suits walking around giving out information about me, and all that shit, and one night they decided to throw a banana at me as a joke. I think people thought that someone was trying to bean me off, but it wasn’t anything serious, or I would have beaten that monkey up.

Save our sweatshirts!

M: I understand that your Save the Hoodie campaign is gaining momentum. Is this a cause that is dear to your heart?

LS: Right. Over here, yeah, there’s all this madness that certain high-up people, like the government and all that shit, have done, where they banned people from wearing hoodies in shoppin’ centres in London and other parts of the U.K., and newspapers and the whole media portrays the hoodie as some kind of criminal thing. They’ve just given them a bad name and I’m just trying to put a stop to all that. I’ve got the Web site at www.savethehoodie.com, and I just want that petition to grow even bigger before I take it and actually show it to someone.

M: There’s a quote from you taken from the Save the Hoodie press release that reads, “Motherfuckers don’t have a clue, do they? How can they sell them in shopping centres but not let them in?” I think I fell off my chair laughing when I realized that you were spearheading the push to bring awareness to the plight of the hoodie.

LS: It’s funny, but I think it’s ridiculous. Really stupid, man. I dunno how far they’re actually going to take it, but if they go further with it, there’s going to be madness, pure madness. The youth of today just get looked down on. I get it all the time, just because of the way I dress in general, and I’m hittin’ 20 soon. Even if my hood ain’t even on my head, I walk into a shop and the security guard is followin’ me.

M: I heard this British granny on the radio talking about how she was proud to wear her hoodie around town, but she still thought that the youth were giving it a bad name.

LS: A granny wearin’ a hood? She could wear one and get away with it. Like, she’s not gonna get looked on any different, so why should we? I don’t get it, man.

Among giants

M: When I was reading about you getting that important call to fly to New York for a meeting with Jay-Z, all I could think about was how surreal the whole thing must have been. I know you must have your shit together to some extent, because you wouldn’t be out there as much as you are if you didn’t, but just how well do you deal with pressure?

LS: Oh, man! Yeah. I never expected to be flown out to meet Jay-Z! I was so scared, even before I got into the office. I was like, “Oh my God, oh my God.” And to make matters worse, when I got in there, Usher was standing there! He was just there, I dunno why, but he was just standing there.

M: That’s weird. Why was he there? There must have been a reason.

LS: Random. I dunno. I mean, I didn’t even know them two spoke. He was just standing there with his arms crossed the whole time (laughs), adding to the pressure I was under. I mean, I was nervous as it was already. And then, LA Reid comes in! And it just turned into this little crowd after a while. It was just little ol’ me and all these giants of the game. I was really shaking for a bit, not vigorously, but I was really scared, man.

M: I’d be shaking too.

LS: It was just weird, man. Jay-Z was paying attention to me. I mean, not putting myself down or anything, but it was still strange.

M: My nightmares about meeting people I respect artistically either have me in a complete nervous breakdown, or they turn out to be a big asshole.

LS: Yeah. I mean, everyone there was cool, but I think it was a little too corporate for me, just going into his office and everything. I think I would have rather preferred to go out for a drink, but I can’t even get served in America because I’m not 21 (laughs). I just didn’t think he would do things that way, but I know he was put under a lot of pressure when he started out, so maybe he was trying to do the same to me, I dunno.

M: Must have been nice to go home to the U.K. after that meeting?

LS: Yeah! He’s backing everything now and supporting it, hooking me up with things. I can’t say too much, but things are happening and I’m happy about it. I just want to do and see more of that side, the stateside stuff, and do as much as I can out there, man.

M: So are there people that, prior to that meeting, you wouldn’t have had access to in terms of production or collaboration?

LS: What, out in America?

M: Yeah.

LS: I mean, a small record label like Chocolate Industries, who picked up on me and are supporting me with the new EP is great an’ everything, but no big resources like Jay-Z. That’s like, fuckin’ hell, everyone needs a Jay-Z, man! (laughs) It’s just mad to have that support. Mad! I don’t really talk about it unless people ask me, because when I think back, I just wanted to get out of that room.

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