Lady Sovereign
Lady Sovereign (born December 19, 1985 in Wembley ; real name Louise Amanda Harman ), short Lady SOV , is a British MC and music producer who claims to have been brought to music by UK Garage . Lady Sovereign's style is mostly associated with the English grime scene.
biography
Earlier life
Lady Sovereign grew up as the second of three children of a former punk couple in London's infamous north-west Chalkhill Estate , a neighborhood with mostly social housing, which is known for its particularly harsh conditions. After she was banned from school as a 16-year-old due to various incidents, she first tried to stay afloat with various jobs. Her father later enrolled her in acting classes.
In addition, Lady Sovereign stuck to her resolve to assert herself musically and to gain respect in the grime scene. Influenced by her mother's Salt'N'Pepa albums, she wrote her first raps at the age of 14 and posted them online in a So Solid Crew fan forum . There she met her future long-term friend DJ Frampster . After Lady Sovereign began to distribute her works on commercial music websites, she received her first rejections because she did not correspond to the classic image of an American MC.
During 2002, Lady Sovereign got the lead role in the educational film X-ed , in which an aspiring MC quits school in favor of his own career. She was able to convince the producer to produce a separate soundtrack for the film. He found his way to music producer Medasyn , who then brought Lady Sovereign together with Frost P , Shystie and Zuz Rock to work on an EP called The Battle . The album was finally released in 2003 via Casual Records .
Career
The Battle laid the foundation for further single releases and moved Lady Sovereign into the public spotlight. First singles like A Little Bit of Shhh! , Random or 9 to 5 sold well, but songs that were never officially published (e.g. Tango , Cheeky ) were circulating on the Internet and were as popular as the material already available in stores. Lady Sovereign was part of the well-known grime sampler series Run the Road both solo and together with The Streets .
In 2005 Lady Sovereign had her greatest successes to date, various older songs were collected on the EP Vertically Challenged (literally vertically challenged , verballhornend for "small stature") - an allusion to the small size of 1.55 m of the self-proclaimed "biggest midget in the game “(German: largest dwarf in the business ) - published on the Chocolate Industries label.
Shortly thereafter, Jay-Z , managing director of the US major label Def Jam , invited Lady Sovereign to negotiate a possible contract in his New York office. After a freestyle rap in front of her future label boss, Usher and LA Reid, Lady Sovereign was the first non-US-American to be offered a contract with Def Jam and then released her first album in October 2006, after the single Hoodie , called Public Warning . The resulting song Nine2Five rose in May 2006 to sixth place in the British charts.
Even the one with Dr. Luke's recorded song Love Me or Hate Me , which borrows from Genesis ' I Can't Dance , became a success; as part of a "Remix" he was new with again Missy Elliott added and the piece reached the first British title the number one MTV America - spectators charts . There were collaborations with Basement Jaxx , The Ordinary Boys and Beastie Boys, among others . From spring 2007 the first full album was also distributed in Germany. The single Love Me or Hate Me was awarded for the soundtracks to the computer games Need for Speed: Carbon and FIFA World Cup 2006 and for the telenovela Alles Betty! licensed.
For the sixth music sampler for the OC, California series, Lady Sovereign contributed a cover version of Pretty Vacant , a song by the Sex Pistols .
In 2007 Lady Sovereign opened the respective concerts as support act for Gwen Stefani on her The Sweet Escape Tour .
Musical style
Lady Sovereign mixes “Grime, Jungle , Garage, Drum and Bass , Dancehall , Ska , Hip Hop , R'n'B , Punk and Hardcore ” on her releases . Her flow is dominated by a broad London working class accent but also brings with it "a lot of Jamaican toasting ". In contrast to other grime artists like Dizzee Rascal , Lady Sovereign uses her sense of groove and melodies, her songs should also work for a wide radio audience.
Private life
In an interview with the magazine Diva outed the artist in 2010 as a gay .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 2006 | Public Warning | - | - | - |
UK58 (2 weeks) UK |
US48 (3 weeks) US |
First published: October 31, 2006
|
More albums
- 2005: Vertically Challenged
- 2006: Chocolate Swim
- 2006: Blah Blah
- 2009: Jig-Raw!
- 2009: Jigsaw
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2005 | Random Public Warning |
- | - | - |
UK73 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: March 14, 2005
|
| 9 to 5 Public Warning |
- | - | - |
UK33 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: August 8, 2005
|
|
| Hoodie Public Warning |
- | - | - |
UK44 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: November 21, 2005
|
|
| 2006 | Nine2Five Public Warning |
- | - | - |
UK6 (10 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: May 22, 2006
vs. The Ordinary Boys |
| Love Me or Hate Me (Fuck You !!!!) Public Warning |
DE65 (6 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK26 (8 weeks) UK |
US45 (9 weeks) US |
First published: October 17, 2006
|
|
| 2009 | So Human Jigsaw |
- | - | - |
UK38 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: February 3, 2009
|
More singles
- 2004: Ch Ching (Check 1 2)
- 2005: A Little Bit of Shhh
- 2006: Blah Blah
- 2006: Size Don't Matter
- 2007: Those Were the Days
- 2009: I Got You Dancing
Web links
- Elke Buhr: The cheeky girl in Die Zeit from March 22, 2007
- Lady Sovereign at laut.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Family on the Web: “Interview with Lady Sovereign”, 2007 ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Die Zeit: "The naughty girl", March 22, 2007
- ↑ a b c laut.de: "Biography - Lady Sovereign", as of August 2007
- ↑ winamp.com: "Lady Sovereign Bio", 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Catriona Mathewson: Sovereign hits her gold mine , February 16, 2007
- ↑ youtube.com: "X-ed" with Lady Sovereign
- ↑ voice-online.com: Jasmine's Juice from February 13, 2007 ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Julie Bolcer: British rapper Lady Sovereign Comes Out . advocate.com on May 13, 2010, accessed on February 13, 2015
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE UK US
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lady Sovereign |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Harman, Louise Amanda (real name); Lady SOV (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British musician, hip hop MC |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 19, 1985 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wembley , London, England |