Def Jam
2006
Public Warning (Explicit)
About This Album
As her full-length debut was set to drop, the buzz around the brash U.K. MC named Lady Sovereign was unavoidable. Before most everyone actually heard her, they knew a few things: she was the first non-American to get signed to Def Jam; she had her chance with the ultra-hip producers the Neptunes and came up with nothing; and Jay-Z signed her on a single freestyle. Thankfully Public Warning is stunning, better than the hype machine could ever paint it, with jaw-dropping, busy production and sharp, spunky lyrics that whiz by and back up this pint-sized rebel's serious b-girl stance. What's most brilliant is that despite the hype, and most likely because folks like the Neptunes are not on here, the album captures the talented rapper with only one foot out of her parent's flat, barely touched by the dreadful "music business" and one step above freestyles posted on U.K. garage message boards. Rules are still made to be broken, slang is slung all over the place, and belching into the mic is still fun, especially when your producer -- in this case, the razor-sharp Medasyn -- can shuffle it into an impossible mix that ping-pongs like the Streets in double-time. Sovereign is unmistakably an unposh Brit, and "My England" declares, "London ain't all crumpets and trumpets/It's one big slum pit.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,7,9,11 and 13)

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