It's good to be the queen. But it's better to be the queen again.

Just ask pint-sized British grime rapper Lady Sovereign. After a year-long self-imposed exile from the music biz, the self-professed "biggest midget in the game" is eager to reclaim her throne. And thanks to her new CD Jigsaw -- not to mention a new approach -- all the pieces are falling into place once more.

"I've changed," proclaims 23-year-old Lady Sov (real name: Louise Harman) down the line from London, before her show in Toronto on Friday. "Taking all that time off helped -- it changed my attitude. I was so burned out."

No wonder. Just listening to Sov's story is enough to make you tired. Signed to Def Jam Records at the tender age of 19 -- after freestyling a rap for an audience consisting of label CEO Jay-Z, L.A. Reid and Usher -- Harman released her much-ballyhooed debut Public Warning and leapt headfirst into the music-industry machinery.

But like a lot of young artists, it was all too much, too soon. The constant touring and promotion took their toll on her psyche, forcing her to retreat from the spotlight and sending her into a near-suicidal depression, which was only exacerbated when she was later dropped from Def Jam.

But Sov -- "Call me Lou or Sov; please don't call me Lady" -- picked herself up, dusted herself off, and moved on. The 5-foot-1 dynamo started her own label, fittingly titled Midget Records, to release her accessible new CD Jigsaw -- which finds her singing for the first time. On the day it was released, we chatted with Sov about her hair, her height and how she's handling fame the second time around:

Q: It's a big day for you. What are you doing?

A: I just got my hair didded. It's half purple. I like it. But I didn't know I was going to get it done purple. I'm wearing a purple hat and a purple T-shirt, so I just look like a purple beast.

Q: So you're like Barney?

A: A little tiny midget version.

Q: When you put out your first album you were 20 and on Def Jam. That must have been crazy. Looking back on it now, were you ready for it?

A: It's kind of hard to say. I was up for it. But it burned me out in the end. I didn't expect everything to be on the scale it was on. It was a big deal. Maybe I just didn't prepare myself.

Q: You've been frank about how you handled the fame. You specifically mentioned you found it very difficult to do so much press. Yet here we are. So what's changed?

A: Everything's coming out on my label now, and I've got to work hard to make things better for my label and myself. But I think people around me have realized that what happened before can't happen again. I can't burn out; it doesn't help anything. People understand a bit more, and I understand myself a bit more as well. But there are questions I just don't answer no more, because that was what drove me mad -- the repetitiveness. The whole Jay-Z thing was made out to be this big deal, like we were best friends, and that annoyed me.

Q: Was leaving Def Jam a motivating factor for you?

A: Kind of. But I had already walked away from everything, really. I didn't speak to anyone, I didn't do anything, for like a year. I just kicked back, hung out, saw family and friends. But when I found out the whole Def Jam thing was done, I was pretty cut up about it. People die to be on that record label, and I nearly died being on it. But everything happens for a reason. And I don't regret anything. I'm here and I'm in good spirits now. I just needed time for myself.

Q: Was there a specific moment when you realized it was time to get back to work?

A: I just realized this is what I'm best at. This is what I love doing and what I'm going to keep doing. And there's no point in me sitting around doing nothing because there's nothing else I want to do. So yeah, I had to make it happen again.

Q: On the new album you're singing.

A: Yeah, I try. Ha! I kinda like it, you know. I know I'm not the best at it. But I like it, the same way I liked rapping.

Q: You talk a lot about being small. But at 5-foot-1, you're taller than Kylie Minogue, Paula Abdul, Pat Benatar and Dolly Parton.

A: See, I am the biggest midget in the game. I'm not lying. I didn't know that they were that short. I'm kind of jealous, actually. I wish I was 4-11. That would be amazing. I just like being small. I couldn't imagine being tall. It freaks me out a bit. I don't know what's wrong with me.