MC Lyte — Act Like You Know

MC Lyte released his third album in 1991, coming from two very strong records released in the late eighties.

This effort isn't as good as the previous ones, especially due of its extreme length (beyond the hour) and due of its blatantly commercial nature. Her pop rap cuts sound bad here, it also combines honeyed / soft songs with other hardcore ones, and she still goes quite well when she gets off the braggadocio workhorse and sits on the socio-conscious bench for a little storytelling: her flow is still good, velvet and regular, nevertheless she often chooses a slow and syncopated delivery that is struggling to keep interested the listener.

After many commercial choices, in the second part it rises a bit, but never reaches the heights touched in previous efforts, if not with some well-built songs: the lyrics are acceptable, venturing into diverse territories including alcohol and drugs ("Eyes Are the Soul", "Poor Georgie"), AIDS ("Lola from the Copa", "Eyes Are the Soul"), teenage pregnancy ("Eyes Are the Soul"), sex ("2 Young 4 What", "Like a Virgin") and problematic relationships ("Poor Georgie"), criticizing carefree rap ("Kamikaze") and navigating a wide range of topics, especially those ignored by most other rappers.

The production provided by Audio Two, The King of Chill, Epic Mazur and 45 King sound not that good, being based more on the mediocre trend of hip house, which floods the entire project. Album without banger, accessible and difficult to digest if you can't stand hip house / new jack, I don't recommend it. "Poor George" is one of the best joints, socio-conscious, heavy bars delivered with a more commercial and pop style than usual (not surprisingly, it's chosen as a single) and a pop rhythm that by a lucky coincidence is better than all the others, always hip house and mainstream, but good.

Launched by three singles, the disk is welcomed in a good way by music critics, while some praise the author for her songwriting ability, her strong rhymes, and her positive, intelligent messages, some more attentive reviewers note that the music has fallen into "pop-rap hell" and that MC Lyte doesn't sound as good as on her previous efforts. With this release, she's trying to please two different audiences — hip-hop fans and new jack swing / dance fans — and ends up risking easily disappointing everyone.

The rapper is also demonstrating that she no longer knows what artistic direction to take, falling into a sort of identity stalemate. This is further demonstrated by the fact that she wanted to go all-in on the album by releasing a cover that would likely have predated Lil Kim by five years, but was then advised against including it by a label executive. Released by First Priority Music and distributed by Atlantic, the CD received a lower commercial response than expected and than that of its predecessor, despite reaching the top 20 of hip-hop albums and ending up among the best-selling rap albums of 1992, when with a different cover the LP probably would have flown to at least a certified gold record if not platinum, and would have definitively launched MC Lyte's career as a commercial force in the rap game.

Rating: 6/10.