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Lady Sovereign discusses Def Jam split
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 9 April 2009
Lady Sovereign, who releases her second album, ‘Jigsaw’, via her own Midget Records label this month, has been talking to The Guardian about her split from Universal’s Def Jam last year. She said: “I went on strike and stopped doing stuff, so Def Jam got the hump with me. I lost the plot a few times. I was cutting myself and stupid things like that. I was tired. I felt like it was just push, push, push. I didn’t have a chance to record any new stuff, it was the same old songs”.
However, she insists that the decision for her split from the major was, in the end, mutual: “My manager rang me and said, ‘OK, it’s definitely over.’ And it hit me. It just had to be done, for their sake, for my sake. It wasn’t messy, it was just… gone”.
Now releasing through her own label, she’s picked up a distribution deal with EMI. On that she says: “They offered us an amazing distribution deal. I want to make money, but I want to be happy and I want to be in control. I sit in my murky purple bedroom on my laptop, and go through everything. I put in a lot more work than I used to, because it is my thing now. I’m determined and excited. This is never going to stop; I’ll keep making music, I’ll keep doing my own thing. I’m not a one-trick pony”.
‘Jigsaw’ is released on 13 Apr.