Lady Sovereign

Lady Sovereign: Not really. This is the first thing I had to get out of bed for.

Lady Sovereign: Yeah, I just got back four days ago. I’m a little bit tired.

Lady Sovereign: That title was the only thing I could think.

Lady Sovereign: Nah, I love it. I’ve no problem with it at all. Before anyone can have a problem with me, I’ve already said it anyway.

Lady Sovereign: I like going into the studio and starting everything from scratch. I tell the producer what I’m looking for and then build up the beat while I’m there. I don’t like to prewrite too much.

Lady Sovereign: I suppose. With certain producers, I can. With some, they’re like [grunts] “My music. I’m going to make it myself.” I tell them what I’m looking for and I add my input into it.

Lady Sovereign: I fell asleep on the first day to put it that way. It was so much to do. Little things like stopping and starting at the right second. Doing this and that. It was fun, though. One of the first videos that I did that wasn’t so ghetto. It had a bit of a budget. I enjoyed doing that.

Lady Sovereign: There’s one with me and The Ordinary Boys. Then I’ve got the Blah Blah video coming out as well.

Lady Sovereign: It’s more like a quiet performance video about me and the band performing stuff. It’s quite basic, but I like it. It’s on my Myspace.

Lady Sovereign: Oh yeah. I never let someone just write the whole script for me. I don’t like that at all because that’s not the way the magic happens. I always have a say in it. My ideas plus their ideas.

Lady Sovereign: In a good way. All the American press is really nice.

Lady Sovereign: Yeah. I had the feeling that I was going to be famous in one way or another.

Lady Sovereign: Not always. I don’t know, I just thought it would be something. I just had the feeling in my belly that I’d be recognized for something anyway. Here we go, it’s music. Whoa.

Lady Sovereign: Like that ain’t happened before, but I don’t know.

Lady Sovereign: My manager told me he got a phone call. I was like, “Shut up. You’re lying.” Like it was a joke. I found out he was dead serious.

Lady Sovereign: Yeah. When I put the phone down I started jumping around like a monkey like, “Oh my God. What the fuck?” I couldn’t believe it. It came so out of the blue. It came out of nowhere. I was a bit stoked and a bit shocked.

Lady Sovereign: Yeah, I am pretty much different so I’m surprised that he signed me rather than a regular hip-hop artist. That must mean something. I’ve spoken to him many times and we’ve hung out. He’s the coolest guy, really down to earth. He’s really honest.

Lady Sovereign: Well obviously most of the stuff I’ve recorded has been out here in the UK. I’ve already done a few tracks in America, but the music here is American with a splash of me on it. I love hip-hop and everything, but to do a straight up hip-hop track just doesn’t feel right for me as an artist. I like to just make music. So I’ll just see what happens. I’m willing to try things out. It’s not like I’m not enjoying it or I don’t want to do it but it is a bit more American.

Lady Sovereign: I did some shows with him years ago. Then a month down the line, it was like, “Okay, I like what they did, they like what I do. Let’s collaborate.” I hung out with them in the studio and I did a couple of tracks. I definitely will do more stuff with them on the next album. I like what they do. They’re definitely doing their own thing.

Lady Sovereign: She doesn’t even need me to say anything more about her. She’s got so much fucking press. She’s got more press from me slagging her off than she has in her life. She’s just some wack wannabe female rapper. I was patently disgusted when I heard her stuff. It was so shit. It was offensive. I did a song about her that mimicked a song she put out.

Lady Sovereign: Sort of once. She’s bigger than me, but if she wanted to say something, she had her chance. She’s still has her chance. She could have done her reply. I don’t know what’s happening with that girl anymore.

Lady Sovereign: Not in school, but around the estate and stuff, but no one cared then. Everyone did it. I know it was bad, but back in those days it was like, “Okay, let’s start a little fire in the dust bin.” Then it would get huge and the fire brigade would turn up. We would be like, “Oh, my God. We didn’t do anything.” That’s just me being a kid. I wouldn’t do it now. No way.

Lady Sovereign: I’d be arrested and I’m not into causing harm and shit.

Lady Sovereign: I was about 14 which is six years ago. It feels like it’s been a long time for me because the way that stuff is happening now. It is taken so long and now it’s paying off.

Lady Sovereign: I listened to a lot of old stuff. I liked some of the new stuff, but I was listening to things like Jurassic 5, Cash Money, Wu-Tang and all that 80’s hip-hop like Digital Underground.

Lady Sovereign: Because I’m a white woman. Typical, typical, typical.

Lady Sovereign: I sounded a bit different. I thought I’ve always been ahead of time anyway. My style has been a bit different from anyone else. I used to write a lot in books but now I just store it in my head. Now that I’ve got a studio and all that, I don’t want to be sitting there reading over lyrics and getting stressed out about it. I’d rather go to the studio and put down.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck