Lady Sovereign

Self proclaimed ‘First Lady of Grime’ and rap midget Lady Sovereign was born Louise Amanda Harman. She became the new voice of the ‘chav’ culture when she recorded ‘Hoodie’ with Basement Jaxx. As a little girl on an estate in Wembley, London she grew up listening to her mum’s Salt ‘N’ Pepa records which were later to influence her sound.

Before then her grimey style had got her a deal with Casual Records in 2004 when they had spotted on ‘The Battle’. The freestyle boys vs girls match featuring female grime artist Shystie.  She is now signed to Def Jam Records run by Jay-Z and has gone on to record with AdRock from The Beastie Boys. She has confidently adopted her role as spokesperson for the ‘chav’ youth, helping to create a campaign to stop hoodies being banned called Save The Hoodie.com. She also featured on Julie Burchill’s Sky One documentary about chav culture after suffering derogatory remarks about the lifestyle she represents.

She brought out an album ‘Vertically Challenged on Chocolate Industries in 2005, featuring single ‘Ch Ching and released EP Bla Bla Bla in 2006. Young and outspoken she has attracted copious press attention, but commercial success seemed to elude her until her recent collaboration with The Ordinary Boys on ‘Nine2five’. This is a reworking of her previous single ‘9 to 5’ that reached the UK Top 40 on downloads alone, reaching number 6 on its CD release.

Her debut album is due out in late 2006 with future collaborations with Young Gun and Missy Elliott being hinted at.