Lady Sovereign samples The Cure: The Omegle verdict
Digital Love/Hate/Indifference, Video
Have you heard of Omegle? It’s kind of like dogging, but without the, er, sex and car parks. You go on there and like *that*, you’re thrown into an instant message conversation with a randomly-selected stranger.
And unless you swap details, the conversation remains anonymous. Cool, right? I dunno. It was cool a week ago for a couple of minutes, anyway.
I went on to Omegle because I couldn’t quite work out the public’s perception of Lady Sovereign. Is she cool? Cheeky? “Vibrant”? Or just a wee gum-chewing guttersnipe chancer? Also, she did a song called “Random” once. Omegle’s random. You know?
I mean she was signed by Def Jam. It doesn’t get much cooler than that. But by that logic walking away from Def Jam - as she apparently did last year - is either ultimate cooligans or mega fooligans.
Now she’s on her own label, the splendidly-named Midget Records. You’ve probably heard her Cure-sampling new tune “So Human”. I like it - you just can’t argue with how catchy it is, and she continues to tread that bolshy/charming line her fans warmed to. But I imagine quite a lot of people who really like The Cure - you know the type - might be rather put out at the cheek of La Sov basically nicking the marvellous “Close To Me” for her own purposes. This is it:
So what I did was, I did the modern-day equivalent of hitting the streets: I sat indoors and hit the internet to steal people’s opinions. That’s where Omegle came in.
My first Omegle encounter was a tad short-lived:
Huh. I tried another “random” ( an earlier Lady Sovereign song, remember!!!!1):
I attempted to continue the conversation, but then we got onto a pretty heated topic:
Listen, if some man steps to me like “oh, banana chockolate’s my fave, reh reh reh” I’m not gonna back down from that fight.
Anyway, so then I got waylaid by some stupid pet-griever:
The next person had frankly bizarre music taste:
And then a little potty-mouth came along:
I tried another Omegler, and this time - imagine! - some kind of coherent opinion was presented:
Alright, now I was getting somewhere. This person - we’ll call him/her SovFan - had a modern way of thinking regarding artists using others’ material in their work. The next part of the conversation started well, but failed to secure a firm commitment from SovFan vis-a-vis La Sov’s forthcoming album Jigsaw:
My faith in Omegle somewhat restored, I entered the fray again with renewed vigour:
Sigh. The next person had clearly just arrived from The Olden Days:
I gave up at on Omegle at that point. Perhaps this last specimen had heard that Lady Sovereign has a rival for ownership of the Cure sample in question in the shape of a man named Thomas Jules? His song is called “Get Close To You”, and is allegedly what led La Sov’s previous label to “encourage” her to appropriate said snippet in the first (or second) place. This is it:
It seems to happen a lot these days, this different-artists-nabbing-the-same-song-at-the-same-time thing, doesn’t it? Perhaps some kind of Central Pop Sample Bureau needs to be set up decreeing who is allowed to “interpolate” what, and when they can do it.
So in the absence of many anonymous strangers willing to voice an opinion, what do you think? Are you a fan of The Cure ready to go and hunt down Lady Sovereign? Or are you slightly more rational about the whole thing? Do you prefer Thomas Jules’ use of the “Close To Me” sample? What’s your favourite flavour of milkshake? Is it strawberry?
Feel free to leave your thoughtsicles below…
Lady Sovereign’s “So Human” is available now, while the album from whence it sprang, Jigsaw , will be available on 13th April from Amazon and other retail emporia
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How far does something have to be different from the original to be a sample rather than a cover? I was tolerating sovvers fine until she started rapping the chorus. Then bile started erupting from my eyes.
That sounds mad painful, sonnn. Get down the optomomomotrists or summink.
I don’t know what it is about that Lady Sovereign ladyperson, but I just can’t help enjoying listening to her speak along to songs - even the choruses.
Also, Omegle is like that place Michael Palin goes to for a fight in that Python sketch. I think you’re disappointing them by not offering them a) sex b) a fite.
Being one of those “types” you mentioned (the Cure-loving type, not a banana-chocolate milkshake loving type, though admittedly I wouldn’t say no if you offered me one), I’m royally offended.
How dare this little conrowed kiddywink delve into the greats of The Head on the Door? She should be sampling Tupac or something more inoffensive.
If she hadn’t sampled The Cure, I need never have been reminded of her existence after months of blissful forgetfulness - and for that, I hope her shell toed Adidas shoes wear out a little quicker than they normally do. That’ll teach ‘er.
Any chance you can turn mychemtoilet into a random collection of Omega Fish Oil chats, at least til the novelty wears off sometime round Wednesday? I love it.
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Lady Sov is super-hot, and she can sample any god-damn thing she pleases as far as I’m concerned.
Yours
Lord Sov
lady sov’s version is a blatant copy of thomas jules’ cover, which was released a full month before hers..
its even been proven that the only reason she did it was cus’ she heard it off of him.
shes intelligent, why cant she come up with her own songs? or her own covers?
ive got to go with tommy’s version all the way
its an ACTUAL song.