Lady Sovereign - 'Public Warning' (Island) Released 05/02/07

Thanks to the likes of Coldplay, Keane and Muse, no longer is the still-mythical idea of “breaking America” such a fanciful notion for British artists. Which is all well and good if you’re white middle-class kids playing stadium guitar music: up until Lady Sovereign however, British hip-hop has always, like Homer in that priceless new Simpsons trailer, been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Perhaps they’re too parochial in the face of all that homegrown bling and gloss, but the likes of The Streets and Dizzee never really broke beyond a limited, niche audience of chin-strokers. But look! There’s Sov perched atop MTV’s chart, and mingling with the likes of Beyonce and Jay-Z on Billboard. We’re not on any grimy London estate anymore, that’s for sure…

It is of course the ickle Lady’s meeting with the latter that really made the doubters back here in the U.K sit up, take notice and then turn their cynicism radars into overdrive. After all, it’s not often you hear of the Jigga himself pursuing someone who, up to that point, had so far failed to spark her own nation’s imagination. In this light ‘Public Warning’, a debut culled mainly from tracks and demos that all but the least dedicated will already be familiar with, could only ever feel like a compromise, trapped as it is between actively trying to seduce an American audience whilst maintaining an (often impenetrable) British narrative.

For instance ‘Tango’ is named after the soft drink, has the line “You tried to be Christina / So you dyed your hair black / But really you look like the Vicar Of Dibley on crack”, yet all the time sounds like a lo-fi approximation of Dre’s trademark G-funk.  ‘Gatheration’ meanwhile takes its cue musically from classic old-school Def Jam and its cue lyrically from that brilliant trailer for Skins where everyone gets wasted and ends up fighting with water pistols, while ‘Love Me Or Hate Me’ obviously references Eminem’s genre-busting ‘My Name Is’ in both it’s lyrics and  sound, if not with it’s overall impact.

All the above are ace, but it’s the album’s middle track and assumed centrepiece that mostly allays any fears that we’re being sold back some diluted idea of what it means to be British and “urban”. ‘My England’ is a strident, purposeful four minutes in which Lady Sovereign reclaims a national identity for the vast majority of people: “We ain’t all Bridget Jones clones who say pardon me / More like gawnin mate, you get me”. There aren’t many other moments like it on the album. It’s a track that seems to assert Lady Sovereign’s right to not only her roots but to sound however she wants, and for the length of her rant involving everything from the Queen to Antiques Roadshow you can do nothing but agree with her.

‘Public Warning’ is ultimately though more approachable and battle-shy then we’d have expected. Lacking the bafflingly-alien impact of, for instance, the M.I.A album, it feels exactly like the sort of record an American company would bankroll when presented with such an appealing, obviously talented, and easy to market artist. UK sound or not, it’s diverting but un-imaginative, witty yet strangely cute. “Officially the biggest midget in the game”  is definitely something to be reckoned with, but her first full-length isn’t likely to make the impact here that it already has over the pond. How ironic!