Lily Allen Knocks ‘Em Out!

Watch out, Gwen Stefani and Fergie! You’ve got some fierce competition in the form of a tiny, twenty-one-year-old, trash-talking, British export by the name of Lily Allen.

Allen has been all the rage back in her native UK and featured on music blogs for months now. Her American invasion is imminent. Her debut album, Alright, Still, released in the UK last July, went platinum and came out in the U.S. on January 30th. She made an appearance on Saturday Night Live on February 3rd, and will be hitting the summer music festival circuit, including MTV’s Discover and Download Tour.

Allen, like Stefani, infuses her bubblegum pop with ska and hip-hop sounds. Unlike Stefani however, Allen raps using cheeky, acerbic, and often hysterical lyrics—bringing to mind other young Brit rappers, such as The Streets’ Mike Skinner, Lady Sovereign, and MIA.

Though she poses as a tough, Cockney, street girl, Allen, the daughter of British actor, Keith Allen, had a privileged upbringing, having attended (and been expelled from) a number of posh, private schools. Her tough-girl image is also contradicted by her fashion choices. Allen has a penchant for vintage prom dresses and bouffant hairdos with short fringe, giving her a saccharine facade. You wouldn’t expect a pixie like her to rap, “Oh my gosh you must be joking me/If you think that you’ll be poking me.”

According to an interview Allen did back in November with the music Web site Pitchfork, she initially signed a recording contract with Regal, a division of Polygram, for £25,000. At the time, the label was busy promoting albums by big names like Kylie Minogue, Coldplay and Gorillaz, and wasn’t exactly sure what to do with their new, young artist. They planned to team her up with mainstream producers and writers because they didn’t think her material was “pop” enough. 

In November 2005, two months after Allen signed with Regal, she set up an account on MySpace, following a serendipitous meeting with fellow Brit rapper, Lady Sovereign, who suggested the social-networking site to her. Allen’s colorful page, with lots of pictures and blog posts, rotated the seven or eight demos she’d produced up to that point, on a regular basis. Based on the strength of these demos and word-of-mouth, Allen developed a huge following. At my last look, she had 128,317 friends on her MySpace page!