I blame my Summer 2005 lovefest with Mike Skinner (aka. The Streets) for my interest in this British subgenre, and there's some pretty kickass stuff there from Skinner and his stable to M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal and maybe even the super-hyped (but pretty catchy) Lily Allen. However, I'm still kind of on the fence with Lady Sovereign. While I have to admit that she's kind of at the public forefront of this dance train, I can't decide whether she's just some tarted up pop midget or the "real deal" -whatever that is. Her early demos showed glimpses of awesomeness but were definitely too raw to be any kind of dealbreaker. I don't know if you find her annoying or not but she's got attitude in droves and -to my ears- her delivery among MC's is second to none. However, she's also guilty of being far more style than substance and doesn't seem like she has much of anything to say instead sticking to name checking herself and making "ch-ching" noises to fill verses. So far she's had some novelty tracks like "Hoodie" and "Random" but seems only at her best when she's pissing on other's people songs ("Sad Ass Strippah") or doing collabs with other artists (Her stint with Brit indy band, Ordinary Boys). Anyways, i've been following her North American release with some interest since she's attracted the promoting interests of hip-hop moguls, not the least of which was Jay-Z; It's probably sacrilegious to actual rap fans, but I always figured she'd be really huge here if she got a few decent producers and songwriters. Though the first couple of singles were just "meh", I'm really liking her latest release here:
The track really plays to her strengths by having a great laidback groove that lets her breakdown her usually frenetic verses to a listenable pace and to boot it's got a great chorus hook. The video also has a lot to do with it, for me. Photo booths and bringing back Kathleen Hamnett style T-shirts? Pure Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment