Review Summary: Your favorite rapper just got KILLED by a girl.
After the recent plethora of talent-less hacks using their vagina as a publicity stunt from Lil Kim to Nicky Minaj, it is always refreshing to revisit the works of a truly talented female emcee. MC Lyte started her career in 1988 with her bestselling album
Lyte as a Rock . Featuring two singles that reached number one on the US hip hop charts, “Cha Cha Cha” and “Paper Thin”, MC Lyte was the most successful female emcee in history hitherto. Rather than attempting a pathetic male imitation rap and boasting about being a gangster, MC Lyte simply demands respect because she has mastered her lyrical skills. If it weren't for her voice it would be hard to distinguish her from some of the all time great emcees like Nas. Her music deals primarily with rapping about every day topics such as romances she has been involved with, and she also has a unique method of creating party songs that combines old school beats and new school lyrical styles.
High Five features old school sounds that are revamped and fine tuned with modern technology. The first track “Cold Rock a Party” is a great example of this. Whereas her first album,
Lyte as a Rock , featured many lackluster ‘oldschool’ beats that did little to add flavor or energy to the tracks, beats like the one on “Cold Rock a Party” could stand alone as instrumentals. Unlike her earliest works, the timing of the punch lines and beat drops on
High Five is done to perfection, and the lyrics are entirely audible and not drowned out by the beat. "Cha Cha Cha" features MC Lyte rapping in a smooth style reminiscent of Slick Rick. Then tracks like "Roughneck" kick up the intensity, before drawing to a somber conclusion on the romantic and tragic track about her deceased lover "Poor Georgie". Regardless of the topics of the lyrics, the beats bring the funk in a way that modern record execs just aren't able to buy. It's the innocent energy, the absence of financial ambitions, the motivation of having fun and creating joy for others that is something you rarely find in post-2000 rap.
Is MC Lyte the best emcee of all time? No. Is she the best female emcee of all time? Probably not. Is she a talented emcee that could hold her own in a battle against any of the modern hip-pop stars? Absolutely. In fact she would send these phonies home with their skirts tucked in. This is what makes MC Lyte (an artist that is a bit long in the tooth) and this album( that is over a decade old) relevant. You might not expect it, but MC Lyte comes across as more manly, less frivolous , and tougher than most all male rappers do today. She shows that hip hop never belonged to a certain race or sex, anyone can succeed in hip hop if you just keep it real. This is why almost three decades after the release of her first album, she still enjoys the respect of the entire hip hop community, and why three
weeks after Nikki Minaj’s first album, she lost the entire respect of every community known to man ( and woman).
