Lady Sovereign rarely presents herself as a lady in the traditional sense. Few would think rap would come out of her pint-sized Anglo mouth. However, she holds her own and recently released her second CD Jigsaw following the success of her first album Public Warning. Lady Sovereign’s down to earth style has generated an international following. The British firecracker does not hesitate to say it like it is no matter how crass or inappropriate her lyrics may seem.
Jigsaw differs from Public Warning in that she attempts to sing more than she did in the first album. Unfortunately, signing is not her forte and should be avoided at all costs. The lyrics of her single, “Love me or Hate Me” from Public Warning, “So I can’t dance/ And I really can’t sing/ Yeah I can only do one thing/ And that’s be Lady Sovereign” should have served as an indication of what NOT to do on her next album. With 11 tracks, three of them were epic disasters: “Jigsaw,” “Student Union,” and “I got you dancing.” The orchestra in the background of the song “Jigsaw” was really the only tolerable element of the song. “Let’s be Friends” was not as much of a train wreck, but it reeked of unoriginality and necessitated a quick check of iTunes to make sure I was not listening to Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A.
The comparison between the two female rappers shows remarkable similarity. Both sport British accents, short statures and feisty personalities. In addition to the surface resemblance, their musical style is also nearly identical — rapping mixed with techno and high-pitched voice inflections. With so few women in the rap game, they cannot escape side-by-side analysis. M.I.A. is more vocally talented and sings about more socially relevant issues, which brings up the question, is Lady Sovereign just a less talented version of M.I.A.? What M.I.A. brought to the rap and hip-hop world was indeed unique, whereas Lady Sovereign is just a poor imitation.
There were still seven songs that held their own on this album. They all shared the elements that have proven to work for Lady Sovereign — straightforward, cocky and suggestive lyrics. In
“Bang Bang,” Lady says, “Now who are you to try and ruin my world/ Now shut your mouth cause I’m talkin’ now/ And if you don’t like well I got that bang bang sound/ So come and crank it loud.” Later on in the album, she even dedicates a song to the sexuality of food and eating which she cleverly calls “Foodplay.” In “Pennies,” the first line is “Yeah fuva muckas/ It’s Lady Sovereign,” followed by a haughty giggle; her sassy and suggestive lyrics match her fervent and spunky delivery when she raps and ultimately leads to a success.
As a personal fan of Lady Sovereign’s debut album Public Warning, Jigsaw proved to be a big disappointment. Unfortunately this Jigsaw puzzle doesn’t quite fit together.
2 stars out of 5.
