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|
 
 ady Sovereign's signing to Island/Def Jam has passed into legend. The five-foot-one British MC was flown first class to New York, summoned to Jay-Z's office, where twenty high-powered music industry players, including Usher, awaited her in a boardroom. Jay-Z asked her to freestyle a bit. She made him laugh. Within minutes, she'd charmed the room and had become the first white female MC with a major record deal. She's also got to be the roughest. She doesn't screw around when taking down her competition: "Sad arse stripper in a messed-up way/ how da fuck did you get airplay? Fuckin' fake /Fuckin' fake, fuckin' fake, fuckin' fake." With her punk parents and working-class heritage, the twenty-year-old "Ess-Oh-Vee" has been called the first lady of grime, the new Eminem and many other honorifics that seem calculated to jinx rather than honor her. But all of it seems to bounce off the petite, foul-mouthed girl in the hoodie and side ponytail. Hooksexup spoke with her by phone from London, where she seemed to care more about French fries than the fact that she's working on one of the most highly anticipated albums of the summer. — Ada Calhoun
Are you happy to be back in London after your long visit to the U.S.? Yeah, it's nice to be able to get a good bag of chips. How is the sound going to change now that you're on Def Jam? The sound ain't changing much. The album's called Public Warning. It'll be out end of August. I mean, it's pretty much my sound. I did a couple of things in America. It's a mixed-up album. It's pretty entertaining. You won't skip any of the tracks, it's not one of those ones. It's very lyrical and very musical. It's got a lot going on. I love it. Obviously I love my shit. Do you have to do more mid-tempo songs for the U.S.? There are a couple of things that may sound more U.S., but it's got a sprinkle of Sovereign on it. It's pretty much me anyway. At the end of the day, I'm happy with it. Are you going to get a new sleek and sexy look? No, I ain't doing it. I'm keeping to how I dress. I'll push the boundaries a bit, d'you know what I mean? I'll wear some things I haven't worn yet, but nothing girly. I can't do it. It's just not part of me. Sooorrrry! Do you have groupies now? [Laughs] Yeah! I think it's great. What are they like? They get very shy. But I love it, man. I love people. I find it great. Do I come across intimidating? I don't know. I don't like to make people shy. I'm a sociable person. Are you dating now? No, there's no time to do it. It would be unfair. That's just the way it is. I'm not working a normal fucking nine-to-five job. How do you feel about being compared to Eminem? It seems like every article draws a parallel between your working-class dropout background and the movie 8 Mile. It's all good. It's a good comparison. But my story's my story. But what he's done and what he does is completely different than what I do and what I'm going to do. It's a bit misleading to people. What are the big differences? I'm a bit more rounded. I don't stick to one kind of music. Obviously, I'm a girl. And I've got more things to say and I've got different things to say because I'm from London. What sets the London and New York scenes apart these days? New York gets a lot more exposure. It's tougher over here to get your music heard by a wide audience. Things are slower out here, which is a shame. Not a lot of magazines will talk about the good shit. Apart from me. [Laughs] People use judgment in a bad way. They hold things back. One person's opinion could count for a thousand people when that ain't the right one. That's a shame. With the UK scene, there's a dark cloud above it that someone put there. Who put it there? The magazines? I'd say a lot of it is radio-related. We've only got one national radio. Something little ain't going to get heard on a big scale. That's why the internet is so good. Like Myspace. You can put your music up there and someone from someplace will pick up on it eventually. Weren't you fifteen when you first posted your music online? Something like that. I was only putting up demos, but the internet is a big tool and I'd encourage anyone to get on there and just chance it, just wing it. It's a big marketplace and you don't have to pay for storage. Can you tell me about your Save the Hoodie campaign? I'm going to keep on with that, get people to sign up and support saving the hoodie. There's all this talk about how if you wear a hoodie you're a bad person, but it will go downhill one day. It's just shit, man. The hoodie's been around for years. Why are people making a fuss about it now? It's a bit, like, shut your mouth. Again, it's a small handful of people talking on behalf of the UK. The government get things so twisted cause they're stuck in their little office. They're surrounded by other MPs and don't go out and see what's really going on. They have no right to disrespect the hoodie. Men in suits are more evil than kids in hoodies. How did the Adrock [of the Beastie Boys] remix come about? He heard some of my stuff and wanted to remix something and we gave him a choice and he picked "Shhhh." I hear he's really into softball. Oh, I need to play softball! I've never played, but I bet I'm great! I will knock that ball out! I mean it. I look tiny, but seriously, I know I could do it. n° 
© 2006 Ada Calhoun and hooksexup.com. |
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