Lana "MC Lyte" Moorer was born in Queens and raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, alongside Milk Dee and DJ Giz of Audio Two. In 1987, Audio Two's father founded his own label, First Priority Records, and secured a distribution deal with Atlantic on the condition that MC Lyte secure a record deal with the same label. In the same year, the girl released her debut single, "I Cram to Understand U (Sam)", one of the first songs written about the crack era, written at the age of 12. In April 1988, she released her debut studio album, one of the first by a female rap artist and her first ever as a solo artist.
Production was handled by Audio Two, King of Chill, Alliance, and Prince Paul, while the lyrics spoken by the emcee were based on a book of rhymes she had written over the course of several years. Although not the first, MC Lyte is among the pioneers of female rap, among the strongest, the most important and talented female artists in the game. Her debut is easily a must-listen for any hip hop heads. She does nothing extremely different than the other rappers and this plays her in favor: she delivers her simple and braggadocio lyrics with an impressive ease and a smoothness and pleasant flow, maintaining her own energetic and hardcore style, which is amazing.
On a production based on the hard and pure raw-n-skinny beat and on a heavy sampling ("Helen Reddy", James Brown, Prince, Ray Charles, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire), Lyte comes out of this minimal temple and goes really strong, tearing practically all the cuts and being able to draw different iconic gems (the single "Paper Thin" above all, a masterpiece) showing herself clearly superior to most of the rappers of the game up to rise to the height of the best with a quality product, tight, tough and hard.
The title track presents a minimal and simple, hard beat, with a lean and whipping drum machine in the background, the rapper gives no escape to the beat with a regular and hardcore delivery, the soundscape can breathe for a few seconds only on the scratched hook. "10% Dis" sees MC Lyte destroys everything for five minutes on a simple, jazzy-funky rhythm, unmissable cut that is dissing towards the rapper Antoinette.
The effort gains positive reviews by critics and in retrospect is hailed as one of the most relevant rap album of all times due to its deep influence on the albums of future female rappers, one of the most undervalued debut ever in hip-hop, a fundamental document and inspirational for female rap, managing to remain a fresh listen even decades after its release, unlike most hip-hop albums released around the same time.
Rating: 8.3/10.
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