Chilling in her room at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in L.A., Lady Sovereign couldn’t quite figure out whose cell phone started to ring. “Everyone’s phone’s going off at the same time,” said Sovereign. Lady Sov has spent the last couple months putting the finishing touches on her new disc, Jigsaw, the follow-up to 2006’s Public Warning. The album drops the 13th of April in the UK and a week prior in the states on her own label - Midget Records.
“It’s been a while. I’ve been away, but it’s all exciting to have it come out on Midget Records,” she said. “(Releasing it on Midget) is just so I could have more control, really. Not just that, but I’ve always wanted my own label, and I’ve always wanted to find people. Obviously, finding people will happen a little bit later down the road. I just wanted to do it this way, ya know, and stamp my name all over it. It’s very exciting. I’m stoked.”

On doing an album on her label and on her own terms, Lady Sov said, “It takes a lot of the previous stress that I would get about stuff. It’s kind of gone away, the whole stress thing. It’s all down to me. If I work really hard, it’s going to benefit me tremendously. If I don’t, then it’s not, ya know. It’s kind of better that way, rather than having to disappoint loads of people at a record label. I want to do things my way for a bit. I’ve finished the album, and now I’m out and about performing again. It’s cool.”

Lady Sovereign, who still lives in London, was in L.A. doing some gigs. She’s set to play three shows in mid-March at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

“I love performing in America. It’s my hub,” she said. “I feel so comfortable being here, performing or walking down the street. People in general are quite different. The attitude’s a bit different when I perform in London. I don’t mind performing anywhere, but it is different performing back home. I’ve got my fans scattered around the world, really. I’m not too sure how many I’ve got going on.”

Talking more about Jigsaw, Lady Sov said, “I guess my style has changed a bit, but it always does on every track, On this album it changes every time. I get into the studio, nothing’s ever the same. I sing on this album. Well, I try anyway.”

Oh no … Lady Sov the next rapper to go from rhyming to singing? That didn’t quite work for a certain hip-hop superstar. “Who might that be,” Lady Sov joked. “Oh, I know exactly who you’re talking about (Kanye West). Oh yeah.”

But will she let her fans down by singing? Will she lose any street cred?

“No of course not, and I’m not going to let myself down either,” she said.

“I would never put out anything that I don’t particularly like. When making music, I get into things and stick with it. I’ve been rapping for eight years. I like doing it. With singing, it’s new to me, but I kinda like it.”

Since every artist must be categorized, Lady Sovereign was immediately thrown into the U.K. grime rap scene. When pressed about her pigeonhole status, she nearly hung up the phone.

“I knew you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say that,” she said. “The thing is, I’m not a grime artist, ya know. Way back when I first started, I was listening to grime and garage and stuff like that and maybe I made one grime song. There’s this TV channel called Channel U. Basically anyone can get their videos on there. It’s really low budget videos and stuff, and a lot of it is mainly grime artists on there. Way back in the day when I had my first video. I think it was a “Little Bit of Shhh,” which was probably the only sort of grimey track I did. Once you’re on there, you’re sort of categorized as a grime artist. I broke away from that scene. That label has just stuck with me now.”

Much like any white rapper in the states is an Eminem clone, Lady Sovereign can’t escape someone throwing that grime rap label on her. It drives her absolutely insane.

“Just a bit. I always know I’m going to get asked about it,” she said. “It’s stupid. That’s why I knew it was coming. I knew you were going to say it. It’s just ridiculous cos it gives a wrong perception as to what grime actually is. Grime is actually out there. I wouldn’t say (The Streets’) Mike Skinner is grime. He’s far from grime, and I’m far from it, too. Dizzee Rascall, yeah he’s grime, but it’s a bit more than that. Grime artists to look out for are JME and Skepta, those kind of dudes. Those are grime artists.”

Another question Lady Sovereign tends to blow off is how her meeting with Jay-Z went, the one she had three years ago, right before Jay-Z signed her to Def Jam Records.

“That is the question, which I refuse,” she said, half-joking, but she was kind enough to answer it mainly due to the fact that we had struck up a good conversation prior to the Jay-Z question. “It was a little bit intimidating because it’s Jay-Z. He’s a fucking legend. Obviously at the time I was meeting him, there was all this big hype about it, so every time I did see him, it was kind of awkward in a way, but he’s a really nice guy. He’s so down to earth. He’s a cool guy, but I’ve banned the whole Jay-Z question. ‘So, tell me about the meeting you had with Jay-Z.’ Go and Google it.”

Before Lady Sov hits Austin for her three SXSW shows and before she starts full on promoting the shit out of Jigsaw, she’s enjoying the downtime. She even considered getting out of the rap game and playing football again.

“Literally I’ve just been hanging out with friends, seeing family, watching football games, soccer rather,” she said. “I almost got back into it myself, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t be able to put my heart and soul into it.”
When asked which team she supported, the answer really didn’t come as a surprise.

“Manchester United,” she said right before she asked who I followed. “Go on,” she said, sensing that I did not support the same club. When I told her I fancy Chelsea, she almost hung up a second time during this 15-minute interview.

“Aw, you’re rubbish,” she said. “That is awful. I won’t hang up, but I can only say that you’re certainly not going to win the Premiership. There is no way. You’ve got no chance. It’s not happening. I really don’t like Chelsea at all. We totally kicked your ass. You weren’t even playing football. It was ridiculous. I sort of forgive you for being a Chelsea fan just because you ain’t winning the Premiership. I’ll give you that sympathy ya know. Whatever.”

Before we mutually and peacefully hung up the phones after our chat, I tried wooing Lady Sovereign to come to my home base - Boston. Told her the first single, the Cure-inspired “So Human,” was hot and that I wasn’t throwing her a bullshit music critic cliché line and wasn’t pretending to like her music.

“You better not be,” she said. “ I definitely will be in Boston very soon. I should be doing a tour the end of May, possibly.”

By Ryan Wood

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON THIS ARTIST