Lady Sovereign Nation

The big music news, at least on the internet, is that pint-sized U.K. rapper Lady Sovereign and her music video for "Love Me or Hate Me" jumped to number one on MTV's TRL video countdown, which marked the first music video by a British artist to ever reach the show's coveted top spot.

Following the trend of new music first appearing in TV ads before an album is even released, many first heard of Lady Sovereign's "Love Me or Hate Me" (iTunes) single months ago in a commercial for Verizon's "Chocolate" LG cell phone. The Verizon spot also embraced another welcome trend of the TV commercial actually telling you the name of the music artist featured in ad.

Lady Sovereign has earned a U.S. following after appearing at the SXSW and Coachella music festivals and through her MySpace page. And just in case you didn't think her U.S. label Def Jam was working hard enough to promote Lady Sovereign, her music also appears in the upcoming Music From The OC Mix 6 soundtrack and in the video games Need For Speed: Carbon, 2006 FIFA World Cup, and NBA Live 07. You can also download a Lady Sovereign track as part of Adult Swim's Free "Chocolate Swim" EP. B000IFRQAY