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Foul-Mouthed Lady Sovereign Cleans Up in "Jigsaw"
06/04/2009 Eww, Lady Sovereign, you've gotten my grime all clean. I liked it the way it was before: ridiculously disrespectful, horribly dissonant, and refreshingly genuine. In her second full-length release, "Jigsaw," British rapper Lady Sovereign seems to have relinquished her title as "Biggest Midget in the Game," though not because she's grown any in the physical sense, mind you. No, Lady Sovereign has abdicated her moniker because she has forfeited "the game." "Jigsaw" is a straight-up pop album (albeit a tolerable one), and not at all true to her London-style rap roots. Her 2006 release, "Public Warning", admonished listeners to – ahem – "screw" themselves if they didn't like her. Various tracks cautioned haters to give her "A Little Bit of Shh," as she viciously made fun of other popular artists in "Tango," while glorifying banned attire at clubs in "Hoodie." "Jigsaw", however, provides evidence that Sovereign has refocused herself. Suddenly, it seems she's fallen victim to marketability and trend-hopping rather than spitting the dirty truth. It's not that the tracks aren't enjoyable, but they lack her majestic impudence. Admittedly, "Pennies," "Student Union," and "I Got the Goods" are fun tracks. Indeed, they might have fit on "Public Warning", but probably included only to balance out more brutal tracks. In her latest album, these are the hardest and closest approximations of grime: the genre of which I was previously sure Lady Sovereign was paragon. The rest of the album is well-produced, but tracks such as "Let's Be Mates," "Guitar," and the titular "Jigsaw" are too tame to be considered a true British rap record. The sampling of the Cure's "Close to Me" on "So Human" is pardonable, as this is something we’ve seen other underground rappers from across the pond complete successfully. Use of vocoder on "Pennies," is inexcusable; even if it is minimal and the rest of the piece is solid—this is just not an etiquette becoming of the Lady Sovereign. It is possible that the change has something to do with her split from Def Jam Records—she's now publishing under her own label, Midget Records. Under her own label, however, you would expect Lady Sovereign to allow herself more freedom and thus depart even more from the mainstream. Her freshman offering was endearing thanks to positively juvenile content and earnest irreverence. In "Public Warning," she was referenced the Mortal Kombat video game franchise, accused a celebrity acquaintance of using too much fake tanner and boasted an entire track called "Random." Sadly it seems that the once raunchy Lady Sovereign has aligned herself more with the pop world she so despised in her last record. Today, she's dropping nondescript pop tunes, and leaving me yearning for the sweaty, dirty grimy sound from which her persona originated. Comments [post a comment]Comments are closed |
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