TELL JAY-Z THERE IS A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN.

If you haven’t heard of Sarah Lewitinn aka Ultragrrl, you are a dime late and a dollar short. This girl’s middle name is ‘projects’ and she has a plethora of them. She is currently working on her second book, heading up Stolen Transmission (the Island/Def Jam subsidiary she runs), DJing around the country, and talking smack on her blog about everything from her former employers, Spin Magazine, to the latest trends in music. New York Magazine named Lewitinn as one of "The Most Influential People in Music" in its May 15, 2006 issue, citing that "she has more power than any print music critic". If you need more convincing that this woman is the one to beat, just google her name and pick your jaw up off the floor. When she says jump, we all say ‘how high?’

We sent our very own Eliza Cuts, fresh off her first interview with Atreyu’s Brandon Saller, to track Sarah down, ambush her via Instant Message, and find out how high we all should jump this week.

Eliza Cuts: Hello beautiful!
Sarah Lewitinn: Hi! Sorry, I was walking to my gate.
Eliza Cuts That’s ok. Just let me know when you’re ready.
Sarah Lewitinn: I'm ready!
Eliza Cuts: That’s what I like about you dude. Okay, so lets begin. I wanted to let you know that you are only my second interview.
Sarah Lewitinn: Weeee! That's exciting! Who was your first?
Eliza Cuts: Brandon [Saller], the drummer from Atreyu. He has a side project called Saints.
Sarah Lewitinn: I think my first was Moby when was 16.
Eliza Cuts: Oh man... Who can beat Moby?
Sarah Lewitinn: Anyone. Haha. He's like 100lbs, soaking wet.
Eliza Cuts: I used to listen to Moby back in the day, around the same time I listened to Bush. When I first heard Placebo.
Sarah Lewitinn: Hahaha. Placebo is still one of my all time fave bands.
Eliza Cuts: It’s funny. I was going to bring them up. I did some research on you and most of the interviews kind of bummed me out. They seemed rather combative. Do you find that a lot when you give interviews?
Sarah Lewitinn: Hahaha. There are a couple good ones out there. A lot of people have issues with me and preconceived notions of who I am and what I'm about. I'm a ‘slut’, I'm a ‘starfucker’, I'm ‘talentless’... There are a million things they think about me that are not true.
Eliza Cuts: Do you think its because you have accomplished so much at such a young age? I mean lets face it... it takes most people a good chunk of their life to have the resume that you do.
Sarah Lewitinn: I think that's a lot of the issue. While everyone was at college, I was going to night school and interning during the day. I had 3 internships when I was 18. I got a head start. I knew I wouldn't succeed in academics, so I took my charm show on the road.
Eliza Cuts: Do you think you’re a workaholic?
Sarah Lewitinn: I definitely am a workaholic. I currently have three projects in the works - and that doesn't even include the label. I'm never listless. There's a Morrissey lyric that stuck with me when I was 14 or 15: The devil will find work for idle hands to do [What Difference Does it Make - Morissey] and either he found something for them to do, or I kept them busy.
Eliza Cuts: Wanna elaborate on the three projects?
Sarah Lewitinn: Sure... I'm working on my book, the Pocket Karaoke, which comes out in the fall on Simon and Schuster.
Eliza Cuts: Hot!
Sarah Lewitinn: And I'm developing a TV show with some friends and a group of really interesting and talented people.
Eliza Cuts: Hotter!
Sarah Lewitinn: And I'm resurrecting the Stolen Transmission party! May 4th!
Eliza Cuts: Hottest, as long as I am invited.
Sarah Lewitinn: I've also been trying to get a clothing line started with my boyfriend, Brandon.
Eliza Cuts:So this is your second book, correct? Any problems you get to avoid this time now that you’ve already had one smash hit?
Sarah Lewitinn: Yeah, my first was called the Pocket DJ. It sold so well that they asked for a 2nd. 38,000 books sold, 30k of which were sold in Urban Outfitters!
Eliza Cuts: I worked at Urban. That’s how I first heard of it.
Sarah Lewitinn: I'm not on Ritalin this time around.... which is mostly a bad thing. Ritalin really helped, but I had to illegally acquire it. Ha! I've got a week to go, I hope that I either get a hold of Ritalin or find a way to focus! Haha. Basically, I'm able to do so much because I don't have a single focus. I want to be everywhere at once... and since I physically can't be, my mind is. I really should be prescribed it.
Eliza Cuts: So people ask you about guilty pleasures. I think that question is beat. I want to know about your non-guilty pleasures (This is where I hope Placebo comes in.) And this can go for songs you listen to on your own.
Sarah Lewitinn: Yeah... Always back to Linkin Park whom I haven't listened to in years. Oooh! My favorite favorite bands: Placebo, Muse, old Radiohead, the Smiths, old Idlewild, Hole, Beatles, Echo and the Bunnymen, [and] Lee Hazlewood. Oh, and Interpol and Joy Division.
Eliza Cuts: So one of the things that keeps popping into my head is ‘why weren’t you ever a musician?’
Sarah Lewitinn: Thanks!!!! I know!!! Hahaha.
Eliza Cuts: Why didn’t you ever start a band?
Sarah Lewitinn: I tried. I can't play an instrument. I took art classes instead of piano lessons when I was little. My parents couldn't afford both. And I can't keep a beat unless I dance.
Eliza Cuts: What about singing?
Sarah Lewitinn: I'm such a bad singer.... once I joined the choir in school to learn. When we had our recital, I didn't sing cause I could tell I was throwing everyone off. I took drum and cello lessons at school, but that really didn't do much. Maybe I’ll be a producer one day. I love the Phil Spector sound and the sounds of bands from the early to mid 80s. I think Echo and the Bunnymen albums still sound incredible. I think I met Mikey under the pretense of starting a band I was convinced when I was 18 that I could sing.
Eliza Cuts: So basically, you dedicated your life to help out people that can? Right?
Sarah Lewitinn: Exactly. I'm the biggest music fan nerd. I want the bands I love to become GIANT.
Eliza Cuts: The idea behind the label sounds so pure. Do you think that all came about because you are a huge music fan?
Sarah Lewitinn: Its part of why I left Spin. They're snarky and like to beat people up by writing... I like to love. I kept on wanting to write about new and young bands, but never could. So when Rob [Stevenson] asked me to join him with a label, it was a no brainer. Well, where I am comes from that. I just was a cheerleader in a sea of jaded snobs. I was always promoting bands I loved, telling everyone about them, getting stooooooked. I'm also not really pretentious. So that helps. I'm not the type of music fan that goes "Ew, you don't know about the arcade fire?" I'm the type that'll be like "let me buy you their record! It will rule your life."
Eliza Cuts: You have gotten to do many amazing things and you are in a sea of jaded snobs. Do you think that is why they come and go and your job gets to stay the same and grow?
Sarah Lewitinn: Its so weird, people try all their lives, fucking over people left and right to do the shit I get to do. But really, its like I wake up one day and get a call "do you want to put out a book?" "Do you want to start a label?" "Do you want to be an editor?" I think that pisses people off.
Eliza Cuts: Do you think its because at the end of the day you are a good person?
Sarah Lewitinn: I HOPE SO!

Eliza Cuts: Did you decided to live your life that way on your own or did you learn by example?
Sarah Lewitinn I love people. I think that helps. I LOVE people. And my parents raised me to be polite. So I treat everyone like they just got elected as president and their name is Bill Clinton. I definitely had a lot of influences -- all of them in my family.
Eliza Cuts: Do you ever feel beat down and like you want to quit it all and take off MIA style?
Sarah Lewitinn: Omg! Everyday! I keep telling Brandon [the boyfriend] that I just want to get married and take our kids to ballet class. I've been working NONSTOP since I was 18. Like 3 different jobs at a time, just so I could get out of the house because my curfew was that I could only leave the house for work or school.
Eliza Cuts: Do you have a final goal or an end result you would like to see from all of this hard work?
Sarah Lewitinn: I want to be SUPER RICH!!!!!! Hahahaha. I'm not joking.
Eliza Cuts: I could see you being the next Jay-Z, on the real.
Sarah Lewitinn: Omg, I hope! I hung with Hova all weekend. Sooooo amazing. I never ate/drank so well.
Eliza Cuts Ouch... you baited me... do tell!!!
Sarah Lewitinn: We had an Island A&R retreat to MIAMI at the Manderin hotel. All expenses paid.
Eliza Cuts: Was it a shredding vibe?
Sarah Lewitinn: We had 7 hour meetings with the A&R staff and LA Reid and Jay-Z and then we'd go to like Nobu and plates of food would come. The area roped off for people like me! I'm wearing my dirty free sweatshirt, and eating a meal with the Jigga. Totally surreal. I'm on greet-with-a-kiss-on-the-cheek terms with JAY Z!!!!!
Eliza Cuts: Nice. Do you ever look around your life and think “I am a normal girl... how did all of this happen?”
Sarah Lewitinn: Omg, every single day. I've got this amazingly gorgeous boyfriend I worship whom I'd be stalking online if he didn't wake up next to me. This amazing dog... My relationship with my parents rules and the people I work with make going to work worth it. That doesn't even count the amazing bands I am putting out.
Eliza Cuts: Do you talk to J about the bands you work with?
Sarah Lewitinn: Yeah, that's during our meetings. Outside of meetings, its all about hearing him tell stories. He loves the Oohlas
Eliza Cuts: We know that you love them and I like them but what does he think of them?
Sarah Lewitinn: He thinks Ollie, the singer, is 100% a star.He was blown away by Ollie when he saw the Oohlas. And he was singing a Permanent Me song once - which blew my mind.
Eliza Cuts: So of course, I have to ask... Blogging... and blah blah blah the Internet...
Sarah Lewitinn: Yes. I started that in summer of 03. I was hanging with my friends, Greg and Raphael. We were known as "Sarah and her boyfriends" and I crushed soooo hard on Greg. We'd make out every night. We'd get wasted make out, and he'd go home with another girl. I would get so drunk every night to deal. And we'd go to every open bar in the city. So one night in the summer it got out of control. I had a party on my roofdeck. I got wasted, made out with Greg, told my high school crush I was still in love with him, and managed to scream at my friends about cleaning up while I cut my foot on glass. After that... My family said it was time for AA or rehab. I begged them to let me work on it - my sobriety. So I went sober and I'd get a call from all 4 of my family members about things. What I did the night before. "Are you sure you didn't drink?” And so instead I kept a blog and let them keep track and it’d be about the shows I went to, the people I saw, the experiences I had, as a sober person. And other blogs wrote about it. And I got huge.

Eliza Cuts: Would you have read your own blogs and do you read other peoples?
Sarah Lewitinn: I don't read blogs. Once a week, I read Perez and Trent.
Eliza Cuts: How many people would you say pay attention to you frequently through blogs?
Sarah Lewitinn: Omg, our flight is postponed! We're calling to find out if we can get on Hova's jet! Eliza Cuts: Good call. Please keep me posted on the jet.
Sarah Lewitinn: I don't have numbers on my blog. It affects the way I write. I try to write like I'm talking to only Karen and Gurj (my best friends). But, keeping in mind that Brandon's parents read my blog - which they do. So I can't write about having a litter of puppies fall out of my vagina when I see Franz Ferdinand.
Eliza Cuts: Lets just say its a grip of people. Who do you hope is reading your stuff?
Sarah Lewitinn: Karen and Gurj. Hahaha. I hope that 10 people read my blog, and no more. I write it for me, to remember thongs. *Things. To remember things. Although, I'd love to remember thongs.
Eliza Cuts: So, you don’t feel a responsibility to say things because you have the attention of a lot of people?
Sarah Lewitinn: No, just because I have the attention of my boyfriend's parents and my brother. I've got such a disturbingly dirty and filthy mind. None of which either of those two parties should be privy to.
Eliza Cuts: Do you think the internet took away your freedom or do you think it gave it to you?
Sarah Lewitinn: It definitely gave me a voice I didn't have before.
Eliza Cuts: Enough about music and the internet... You get to talk about those enough. What movies do you back? Whose fashion do you love? How do you change your hair so much without it falling out?
Sarah Lewitinn: 1. Trainspotting, donnie darko, pretty in pink. 2. Dior homme !!!! 3. It falls out!!!! I have such thin hair. But I have this crazy henna creme that I condition with that is great.
Eliza Cuts So... we are almost done. I have two more questions.
Sarah Lewitinn: Ok! This has been fun!
Eliza Cuts: How did you hear about WMHC and what do you think?
Sarah Lewitinn: I heard about WMH from my friend Alicia's away message. I think its an awesome concept and I'm waiting to get jumped in -- I think I've passed my initiation!
Eliza Cuts: Hmmm, I will see what I can do... Final question: Misshapes and that whole scene.... is it tired or does it still rip? Be honest!
Sarah Lewitinn: Well, they're a brand now. The brand is awesome. The people involved rule beyond belief but the party is filled with people that none of us know. I used to know everyone. Still, I back the misshapes 100%. They're as nerdy as me. They just look cooler.
Eliza Cuts: I guess that’s the way it always goes.... right? Uou have an amazing time and then.... a bunch of people show up that you don’t know.
Sarah Lewitinn: Exactly. But I love Leigh, Geo, and Greg. Man, do I love Leigh. She's one of the best people I know. I want to take care of her. She's so great.
Eliza Cuts How did you get the name ultragrrrrl? I forgot to ask.
Sarah Lewitinn: My brother started an aol account and I needed a screen name. I wanted purplegrrrl. And he chose for me. He named after a feminine product he had me test run. It was called ultrafemme. So he did that to bum me out, as most boys do.
Eliza Cuts: I got my nickname from my screen name too. Hahaha.
Sarah Lewitinn: Wait. Explain yours.
Eliza Cuts Well, I needed an sn. I chose my name and then cuts because I honestly couldn’t think of anything else and, well, I am obsessed with cutting hair. So I had it as my sn and then on warped everyone started calling me elizacuts. It suck.
Sarah Lewitinn: Hahha
Eliza Cuts: So thank you so much for taking time out to do this.
Sarah Lewitinn Oh travel update - My plane is delayed.
Eliza Cuts: So your not taking JZ's jet?
Sarah Lewitinn: (sad face)
Eliza Cuts: Bummout.
Sarah Lewitinn: Totes.

Don’t worry, everyone. Sarah did eventually get back home safe. Please check out her latest endeavors on her blog. And if you’re not down with her record label, Stolen Transmission, get hip to it now!