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BIOGRAPHY

Lady Sovereign
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Louise Amanda Harman, born on December 19, 1985, known as Lady Sovereign, is an English rapper.

Lady Sovereign is unique as the only white female artist in the primarily black British grime scene. As a white MC, her authenticity has been contested within the British grime scene, "even though she grew up in the same kind of public-housing project - Chalk Hill estate, now demolished - that many grime artists did." She has been compared to both Sporty Spice, for their similar athletic fashion, and to Eminem, as "another lily-white rap sensation."

Sovereign is notable for her adoption of a relatively masculine appearance and aggressive delivery, donning athletic gear and mocking the trappings of more traditional female sexuality, perhaps in order to better fit in with the male dominated Grime scene. This stands in sharp contrast to female artists in similar genres, such as Bassline House’s more traditionally feminine Zoe.

Sovereign levels of success continue to rise domestically, and while she has not reached mainstream audiences abroad, she is becoming recognizable as a standout Caucasian in the grime genre. New Yorker writer Sasha Frere-Jones describes her as "good: pithy, clever, and able to use her honking voice to humorous effect." In addition to being compared to American rapper Eminem for being lone prominent Caucasians in their genres, they also both frequently use this "honking" voice in a humorous way.." This can be seen in Lady Sovereign's track "Cha Ching (Cheque 1, 2 Remix)" and Eminem's tracks "Just Lose It" and "Without Me."

Lady Sovereign was born Louise Amanda Harman to Lynette Parsons and Aden Harman. She was raised in northwest London's Chalkhill Estate, a public housing project. She was influenced by her mother's Salt-N-Pepa albums and began writing her own raps at the age of 14. She began uploading some of her songs and a picture to various music Web sites. Around this time Harman adopted the Lady Sovereign moniker, a reference to the large sovereign ring she wore.

After dropping out of school Sovereign landed a job acting in an educational film about the life of an up-and-coming MC who also dropped out of Preston Manor High School at 16. She convinced the film's producers that she could record a soundtrack for the film, the demos for which landed in the hands of record producer Medasyn. He partnered Sovereign with Frost P, Zuz Rock, and Shystie for a male vs. female MC freestyle contest, titled "The Battle". It was released in 2003 on Casual Records. Every artist that was featured on "The Battle" has gone on to be signed by a record label.  

"The Battle" began a string of singles that would push Lady Sovereign into the spotlight. While "A Little Bit of Shhh!," "Random," "9 to 5," were selling well, free Internet-only freestyles like "Tango" and "Cheeky" were becoming just as popular. On November 15th, 2005 Chocolate Industries released the Vertically Challenged EP, which collected most of her singles recorded to date.

Aside from her own records, 2005 saw Lady Sovereign appear as a guest or contributor on several projects. She began 2005 by appearing on the grime compilation Run the Road, both as a solo artist and with The Streets. When The Ordinary Boys released the single "Boys Will Be Boys", Lady Sovereign came back with a reply remix, featuring the music and chorus of the original, but with mostly her own vocals to the tune of "girls will be girls". In May 2006, she was featured on the Ordinary Boys single, "Nine2Five", a remixed version of her own "9 to 5", credited as "The Ordinary Boys vs Lady Sovereign." "Nine2Five" entered at #38 in the UK top 40 singles on downloads only, and jumped to #6 upon availability as a CD and 7" vinyl single during the week commencing May 22, 2006. This was her highest chart position to date.  

Lady Sovereign has appeared on Soccer AM several times. She has appeared in a feature story on the Cartoon Network and in an educational movie called X-ED which can be viewed on YouTube. In late 2006, "Love Me or Hate Me" was played in a Verizon Wireless advertisement. It also appears on the Need for Speed: Carbon soundtrack, and is also the theme music for the show, The Bad Girls Club. "9 to 5" also appears on The Bad Girls Club, as well as on the soundtrack of the Xbox360's version of EA Sports' FIFA World Cup 2006 video game and on the Ugly Betty soundtrack. Also "Random" appears on the Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix soundtrack. On October 17, 2006 "Hoodie" was used for the Mario Party Nintendo DS commercial. On October 23 2006, Sovereign made an appearance on American talk show Late Night with David Letterman. The lyrics "If you hate me, then fuck you" were changed to "if you hate me, then I hate you" for the show. Lady Sovereign served as the host and spokesperson for Adult Swim and Chocolate Industries' Chocolate Swim.