Lady Sovereign

The diminutive Lady Sovereign is a white rapper with a tomboyish presence and self-deprecating sense of humor who rose up as part of the U.K.'s grime scene in the early 2000s. She was just out of her teens when her first singles started getting the attention of British club DJs and BBC's Radio 1, and by 2005, after a series of crucial opening gigs for Basement Jaxx and the Streets, her fame had crossed the pond. Lady Sov was embraced by the U.S. music press, hipsters, and hip-hop intelligentsia, and she became the first foreign female artist to be signed to Def Jam Records, who released her first full-length album in 2006.

• electronic
• hip hop/rap
• 2000s