straight up cheeky So here's my remebered history of the critical reaction to Lady Sov. Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Roll Deep Crew might have invented and defined grime, but Lady Sov made it a genre. A 19-year old white girl with sinister lyrical dexterity, Lady Soverign's mall rat rhymes about fake tan proved that grime could incorporate pop sensibilites and non-gangsta narratives. Her early singles and her appereance on grime's defining Run the Road comp made her a blogger's delight. The hype nearly turned into backlash after some the less impressive singles and a few immature performances in the States. When President Sean Carter reached down from Hip-Hop Olympia to sign her to Def Jam, fans became even more divided. Lady Sov's catch-up-for-the-U.S. EP on Chocolate Industries gives some fodder for the haters, but even more ammo for the fans. She's very talented, quite cheeky and appropriately immature. When she's rhyming about sleeping through tv appearences and being hungover for show's, it's on. When spitting Mean Girls raps about her rivals, it's very much less on. At her best she brings to mind the humor, irreverence, pop-culture obssesion, introspection and sheer rap talent of Eminem's first album. As she'll tell you, Feminem she's not, so let's have a listen.

Lady Soverign- Ch Ching (XXXchange mix)

Here's a label-provided Ch Ching remix by Alex Epton, the Spank Rock producer that I wrote about on here recently.

Lady Soverign- Cheeky (unknown white label remix)

Some exclusive heat for ya. Her ab-libs are high-larious, and the hard-as-screws grime beat complements her flow nicely. If you like these, go to iTunes and start with "Random," "Ch Ching," and Ghislain Poirer's remix of "Fiddle with the Volume."  ¶ 11:06 AM