Her highness of progressive rap comes out swinging
When Lady Sovereign came to Portland last month to the Doug Fir, the audience wasn’t what you would expect. Instead of hipsters and thugs, it seemed like a fifty-fifty split between lesbian couples and straight thirty-something club goers. Kind of a surprise, but not really.
In the press, she’s been cheeky and ambiguous about her sexuality, perhaps knowing that some of the ladies at her shows aren’t necessarily there as much for the rhymes as to watch her androgynous little form bounce around the stage. But I guess its a rare meeting of promiscuous dance club energy and genuine awe at a tiny little woman spitting fierce rhymes that makes a Lady Sovereign appearance what it is.

Sovereign’s latest release, Jigsaw, represents something of a return to the underground garage and grime sounds that put her on the map with the 2005 EP Vertically Challenged. There is still a major-label aura to the club sounds of Jigsaw, but nothing as gaudy as the guitar samples and pitch-shifted voices of Public Warning (Def Jam, 2006).
She came out swinging in a baggy t-shirt, a big rasta hat that added a foot to her stature, and a mic in her hand. She spat mad rhymes with all the intensity you’d expect from a talented, streetwise American male. Still, the amount of sex projected onto any woman in front of an audience is much greater than that of most male rappers, but Lady Sovereign knows how to play that up, too. She came out for her encore ditching the t-shirt for a tight black tank top.

One hopes the flash in the pan that put Sovereign on the radar of everyone from Missy Elliot to Snoop Dogg a couple years ago is not totally over. With a new record that blends big club beats with the lo-fi grime, we’ll see what else she brings to life.

By Dave Jones

For more information, see her website here