Lady Sovereign at Manchester Academy Three 12th June

The UK’s most influential female grime MC brings her heavy beats to Manchester Academy.

Lady Sovereign is one of the UK’s most distinctive young artists. After growing up on London’s notorious Chalk Hill estate, she dropped out of school at 14 to spend her time building up her skills as a grime MC. Five years later she found herself in Jay-Z’s Def Jam offices, giving out a razor-sharp freestyle that convinced him to sign her on the spot.

Since then she has worked with The Streets and The Ordinary Boys, with collaborations slated for the future with American stars such as Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot and Pharrell, while her singles Hoody, Random, Love Me Or Hate Me and 9 to 5 have made her a serious figure on the UK grime scene.

Never one to stay with the crowd, Lady Sovereign cut ties with Def Jam in 2008 and has just released Jigsaw, her hotly anticipated second album, on her own independent record label. You can expect to hear a lot more about this MC over the next year – get down to this gig to find out what the fuss is all about.