Raised in a public housing project in London, Lady Sovereign (born Louise Harman) became one of the world’s best-known British rappers when 2006’s “Love Me Or Hate Me” broke the American Top 40 on the strength of her pugnacious charm. What seemed like a beautiful partnership with Def Jam—Lady Sov was signed by Jay-Z—ended after just one album, though, and she released this year’s Jigsaw on her own Midget Records. At 23, she has passed through hype and backlash to become, arguably, what she always was: an underground artist with mass appeal. On the eve of her North American tour, which includes a stop at the El Rey Theatre on May 26, she answered Decider’s phone greeting with forked tongue in cheek: “You called me Louise,” she said. “That’s really bad.”
Decider: You wrote lyrics online when you were young, and now sing about Facebook. Have you ever had the urge to just unplug and ignore the Internet?
Lady Sovereign: I don’t know, I use the Internet a lot. I don’t necessarily constantly communicate with my fans or whatever, but it would be hard to distance myself. I just couldn’t do it. It’s like not having a phone.
D: How much time do you spend online?
LS: Quite a lot. Like on the iPhone as well. I’m always checking Facebook or Twitter.
D: What’s your creative process with your producer, Medasyn?
LS: I’ll have ideas in my head of what I want to say, but I need a beat to inspire me. So I would just say something as simple as, “Can you try something at 103 BPM with a reversed hi-hat and use an electric piano?” And then it just grows from that. If I’m feeling it, then I’ll put some melodies down, and he’ll build over that. Both of us know when it works.
D: Did Jigsaw use the same process?
LS: Literally the same, but the difference was I hadn’t been in a studio for some time. When I took eight months off, I wasn’t thinking about making music that much. I was just away from it.