Despite being hyped as the next big thing, the UK rap scene seemed in danger of never fulfilling its commercial promise over on these shores. Enter Lady Sovereign. While her massive US deal with Def Jam was initially met with curiosity at best, it's now pretty clear that Jay-Z was onto something when he hedged a big bet on the self-proclaimed Biggest Midget In the Game. Combining just enough authenticity to attract open-minded hip-hop heads, enough of a rebel sensibility for the alternative crowd and the big-time personality to lure everyone else to the table, Lady Sovereign's "Love Me And Hate Me" became the most random — and the funnest — video to hit #1 on MTV's TRL in quite some time. She'll need a lot more hits before the Eminem comparisons are valid — beyond the sense of humor and, of course, the skin tone — but Lady Sov is off to a hot start.
Director Brian Beletic doles out a few tidbits on the clip:
"Sov has a deep distaste for the color pink. One day before we filmed,
Sov wasn’t feeling well and someone sent her flowers on my behalf to
cheer her up. Pink flowers. Ooops. Oh well. You may notice there is no
pink in the video.
Then MI5 chased the East London sports bottle terrorists through our tech scout. Exciting at the time, but now none of us can take water bottles or lip balm on planes. The garbage man with long hair was in 'Dead or Alive' (You spin me right round, baby right round like a record, baby right round). The overweight Sov was a 19 year old look-a-like. The monkeys were a seven year old and a nine year old jumping on a $330,000 Rolls Royce Phantom. The insurance guy was lured away from set with a pretty girl and a lemonade while we shot this scene."
(see photo above of Beletic, on the right, with the very hairy Sov and two groomers)
--> watch "Love Me Or Hate Me"
Lady Sovereign "Love Me Or Hate Me" (Island Def Jam)
Brian Beletic, director | Ben Sullivan, producer | Smuggler, production co | David Lanzenberg, DP | Maury Loeb, editor | Mass Market and The Mill, effects
