Lady Sovereign Patches a Leak in Her Spiegeltent

Big shades help Lil' Sov deflect the negative vibes.

Love her or hate her, Lady Sovereign will always be the first non-American female signed to Def Jam Recordings, which released her full-length debut, Public Warning, last year. The 21-year-old, self-described “white midget with a barely there 5’1 frame” wowed Jay-Z and other movers and shakers with her fierce attitude and rhymes about growing up in rough parts of London.

Of course, the princess of grime became more of a court jester last month, when she suffered a very public nervous breakdown, ostensibly prompted by anxiety over poverty and depression, and failed to complete a late-night set before Brooklyn tastemakers.

While Greenpoint hipsters understandably felt the Brit had flipped them the V sign, the Sov explains the incident was caused by the stress of a tour bus fan belt breakdown after she had opened for Gwen Stefani earlier that evening in New Jersey, having traveled from Virginia in the morning.

Um, this sh*t is bananas! L-E-S-B-I-A-N!

All hail Lady Sovereign's crisis management and comeback plan after the jump!

Given the royal drama, it will be bloody interesting to see how Lady Sovereign is received when she returns to New York on July 7. She’ll headline the opening night celebration of Spiegelworld in the Spiegeltent, one of those sumptuous European “tents of mirrors” designed to house traveling fairs and festivals at the turn of the twentieth century. Spiegelworld will present exotic, world-class acro-burlesque and theatro-batic shows throughout the summer, as well as acts such as the Shout Out Louds, DeVotchka, Badly Drawn Boy, Paul Capsis and Penny Arcade.

Behold the lavish interior of the Spiegeltent.

Despite her high-profile frustrations, the Sov has managed recently to release a remix EP, Those Were the Days. The title track, with nostalgic lyrics about finding “the pound on the ground” and “getting chased by the local pit bull,” retools the All in the Family theme song for today’s street savvy set. Then again, Archie Bunker sang to reminisce about the good old days when the “freaks were in a circus tent,” so perhaps he and his Queens brood would have relished the idea of Spiegelworld, after all.