MC Lyte

17-year-old Brooklyn girl named Lana Moorer, aka MC Lyte, who in 1988, broke out with her debut album, Lyte As A Rock. Suddenly, all bets were off for female MCs. Realizing that Salt 'N' Pepa didn't have the edge that some listeners wanted, Hurby Azor produced Antoinette. Often cited as the "female" Big Daddy Kane," she kicked out the single "I Got An Attitude," a platter diametrically opposed to the happy feel of Salt 'N' Pepa. Antoinette was pure lyricist-and she was coming for Lyte. But she was too eager and learned the hard way that Lyte wasn't the one to battle. If Antoinette was a lyricist, then Lyte-on her response, "10% Dis" - was a dictionary. With her distinctive, honey-rich voice, Lyte made no play for male attention other than through her rhymes. It'd been a long time since Sha-Rock. It'd been a long time since a female MC could walk in a room and command the respect she deserved right off the top. The stakes had totally changed now that Lyte was on the field. She was more than a rapper-she was a storyteller of the highest order. Long before she'd cut the last of her string of seven albums (making her the most prolific female rapper ever), she'd made the name MC Lyte synonymous with "female MC."