Snowed In With Lyte Week, Day 7: Uncensored

Ok, there's no more snow on the ground... it was a pleasant day out. So it's time we wind up this week with one final MC Lyte outing.

This 1991 12" is from Lyte's third album, Act Like You Know. This is the one where Lyte really started getting off-track in a seeming bid for cross-over success. While she still had a handful of beats by Audio Two and the King of Chill (and even a couple from The 45 King!), more than half the album was produced by two pop producers named Bret Mazur and Richard Wolf. The big lead single was the cheesy "When In Love" with the sappy R&B chorus, which was followed by "Poor Georgie," which feels like a weak attempt at recapturing the success of "I Cram 2 Understand U," with Lyte dating an alcoholic this time, instead of a crack head. Except with more pop music in the instrumental.

And that was about it for that album, except for this final, promo-only 12" single the label kinda snuck out before moving on. Someone from the comments section here actually put me onto it, so thanks. :) The A-side is not bad... they chose one of the few Audio Two-produced tracks, "All That." It's not one of their best tracks, but it's pretty solid. Lyrically, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Lyte freestyles, with a bit of narrative, but basically just to highlight her brags... some of the lines are fun, typical Lyte (that's a good thing), but others are corny("I know your kind, you roam around the fuckin' town/ You wanna slap it, flip it, and rub it down"). Basicially, it's just ok (but a big step up from her previous singles), and comes as a standard "Dirty" album version and a "Clean" one.

But this 12" is really all about the B-side. "Why U Wanna Get Fly" is a 12" exclusive and really is just all about Lyte getting unabashedly hardcore. The track is produced by DJ Master Tee, and features her first collabaration with Lin Que, who was still going by Isis at that time. It only comes in one version, "Uncensored," partially probably 'cause it's kinda long (it's no "Adventures of Super Rhymes," but it's over 5 minutes). It's a nice, chunky beat with an early DITC sound, fly horns on the hook, some nice change-ups and even some fresh, sampled speeches. Isis sounds really good here, and they have some nice interplay between the two of them.

Before I go, of course I've gotta hit you off with a link to Lyte's myspace. But she's got much more than that! Here also is her official website, her blog and her other blog (both of which she seems to keep fairly well updated). Heck, while I'm at it, here's her YouTube channel. Lyte is definitely keeping her name out there (I'm following her on Twitter, too); now let's just hope she backs that up with some hot, new music.