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ON THE RISE
My life. Freedom of expression through lyrics, music, dance, art. Community. It means family," shares legendary emcee MC Lyte (neé Lana Michele Moorer) when asked what hip hop means to her during our Zoom call.
In the late 1980s, the Brooklyn-born rapper entered the industry with intention. For her, it was important to make her mark on the genre while also speaking directly to issues and topics that not only affected her immediate community, but the Black community as a whole. From drug addiction, racism, and even the way Black women were viewed and treated—the "Ruffneck" lyricist was instrumental in pushing conscious rap forward.
"Hip Hop is the one thing—no matter race creed, religion, culture, environment—that has this way of permeating any blockage of comprehension of the next person."
MC Lyte
With a total of 8 studio albums in her discography and plenty of chart-topping collaborations, MC Lyte has certainly earned her spot among hip hop's greats. Today, she's still ensuring that the story of the culture shifting genre is always told in the right way. From her voice-over work on several award shows and commercials, to her philanthropic efforts with her organization, Hip Hop Sisters Foundation.
"We've given over a million dollars to young people who have chosen to further their education at places like Dillard University, an HBCU, in New Orleans. It's been wonderful to see them do that, and then go on to procure themselves within chosen career paths."
She's certainly earned plenty of deserving accolades, including: the BET Hip Hop Awards "I Am Hip Hop" Icon Lifetime Achievement Award, recognition by Vh1 Hip Hop Honors, as well as the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal which is Harvard University's highest honor in the field of African and African-American studies.
As EBONY continues to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop, and its role in pushing the culture forward, we sat down with MC Lyte to delve more into the earlier parts of her legendary career, her thoughts on the future of the music genre as well as what she's most excited about during this celebratory year.
EBONY: How did your upbringing in Brooklyn and NYC as a whole influence your career and love for Hip Hop?
MC Lyte: Growing up in Brooklyn was definitely a beautiful musical experience. My mom played a lot of different genres in our home. Then, there were different sounds when I would go to Far Rockaway, Queens and in Spanish Harlem, where I would go visit my grandmother, there was hip hop. My upbringing prepared me for what was to come. But it wasn't until I heard Salt-N-Pepa that I believed I could rhyme.
Speaking of your early career, why was it important to speak to the social issues that affected Black and Brown communities?
The first root began long ago, when I attended school in Brooklyn. Around age 9 or 10, we had to create our own picket signs to go to the United Nations and protest on the steps to let our brother [South African activist] Stephen Biko go. So from a very early age, I was serious about the social issues and topics that affected those I knew and loved, and the communities I was a part of.
I released "I Cram to Understand U" in 1988, which was an anti-drug message, because I wanted kids my age to know how vital it was for them to stay away from drugs, or anything associated with drug use. Part of that was seeing the drug addicts when I would visit my mom at her job at Harlem Hospital. I just knew that never could, or would, be my story, and I wanted to share that with my peers.
What are you most excited about during this milestone year in hip hop?
This is something I've been involved with for over 35 years now. So for me, it's a like a parent that attends their child's graduation. Wow, just look how far we've come, and there are so many contributors to it. Hip hop is this thing that nobody owns, and everyone has the right to listen to and become a part of it. For me, that's always a plus when you have something that's so inclusive and has still managed to persevere, even when people have tried to put a stop to it. There's been so many things we've come against, but we're still standing with legends that have gone on to do great things. Like own empires, enterprises and companies that have created opportunities to put many other Black people to work.
" For me, it's a like a parent that attends their child's graduation. Wow, just look how far [hip hop has] come."
MC Lyte
LL Cool J's Rock The Bells, to me, is an extension of that—an extension of a man that started living his dream very early on in life and continued to do that in other mediums. But true to his heart, hip hop always comes first for LL Cool J.
Talk to the next generation of hip hop and where you see the genre going.
Hip hop is endless. The youth are extremely special and what they bring keeps it alive, and keeps it moving. I believe we will continue to have many subgenres that will go around the world. Hip hop is the one thing—no matter race creed, religion, culture, environment—that has this way of permeating any blockage of comprehension of the next person. Everyone loves music.
ON THE RISE
A savant singer and composer, the California-based artist Odelet began performing her own music while in college studying visual art at Portland State University. But well before that, she had already developed an eclectic taste in music.
Odelet is a native of Detroit, and one of her fathers was all about the Detroit music scene. Her other dad, meanwhile, was into old school country music. And a young Odelet soaked it all in.
Now an independent artist with a fast growing following, Odelet has followed a similarly diverse musical path with her own releases: she debuted with the avant-garde 19-track album Experiment in 2021, which served as an exercise in minimalism; then she dropped twelve songs on The Angels Album in 2022, which took her into the world of soul and R&B––genres that have been close to her heart since she was a child in the Motor City.
And now Odelet is preparing to release her third album, Pisces Pie, on May 11, which she describes as an ode to classic hip-hop production and siren singers.
“It was right after I got out of high school that I delved more into hip hop and listened to artists like A Tribe Called Quest,” she says. “It’s really evolved over the years because I’ve always been around very different kinds of people and music listeners. I’m always just eating it all up.”
The idea for Pisces Pie was born a few years ago when Odelet was recording Experiment, which served as a compilation of sorts for her body of work as a stripped down and very minimal singer and songwriter. But already she had an idea for something like lo fi hip hop, with beats serving as the backbone of the project.
“I’ve always really loved playing around with presenting writing in a stripped down way, it’s really fun for me creatively,” she says. “With The Angels Album, it felt like I was ready to stretch out into that sort of soulful soundscape, but things are never really planned out for me. Even when I’m in the midst of getting a project done, always in my mind I’m on to the next thing, too and I love feeling expansive in that way. I have an idea, then I have the next idea and it always fits together like each perfect puzzle piece and I just roll with it.”
The 11-song album Pisces Pie isn’t the only new puzzle piece; she’s also released a new EP titled Odelet’s Hufflepuff that’s something of an appetizer for the full project.
“It’s a little grouping of songs that are setting the tone that gets to continue and build to the full project,” she says. “It’s not dissimilar to courses in food; it’s kind of like prepping the palate.”
Songs like “Cinderella,” which feature on the four-song EP, are an amalgamation of sorts of her works: it’s driven by a minimalist beat and instrumentation over which Odelet sings with her soulful voice––it’s even got some jazz in it. The result is a sound both timeless and brand new.
“The sound I am really drawn to is very much rooted in an analog sound,” she says. “It’s the depth of it and I’m super nerdy about it so I love creating a sound that feels sort of like it’s of a bygone era. I’ve always been really into old world things in general.”
“I love how much it can be read in a very literal way or felt in a very literal way,” she says. “It’s a love song, or about this notion of someone talking about themselves. It could be taken in a very literal way but I also love that all the new songs can be interpreted by people in very unique ways to themselves. They are really love letters to myself, and ‘Cinderella,’ especially, is kind of falling in love with yourself.”
Odelet still has her passion from college for visual art, too, and she accompanied The Angels Album with an award-winning experimental music visual which has since been screened in more than 50 film festivals. In 2022 she also co-founded the production company Everlasting Tape, which produced her second project (and first full band effort) and is very connected to her visual art work––more of which is on the way for Pisces Pie.
“I’m very much interested in playing around with a more abstract approach to a visual representation or accompaniment to the music, so where it feels connected but almost in an ineffable way, very dreamlike,” she says. “I was calling it dream-scaping. It’s creating this multidimensional world that you get to feel transported into.”
Stay connected to Odelet for new music, visuals and updates:
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