Songoftheday 1/22/19 - I need a dude with a attitude, only needs his fingers with his food, Karl Kani saggin' timbos draggin'...
from the album Ain't No Other (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
Today's song of the day comes from rap artist MC Lyte, who grew up as Lana Moorer in Brooklyn, taking to the art at a young age. She was still a teenager when she made a featured cameo on Sinead O'Connor's modern rock hit "I Want Your (Hands On Me)" on her Lion & The Cobra album, which went to #20 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart in the spring of 1988, and had MTV airplay to boot. Later that year, Lyte released her debut album Lyte As A Rock. While no singles from it hit the chart, the album reached #50 on Billboard's R&B albums chart. The following year, Lyte returned with Eyes On This, which turned out to be her breakthrough in the genre, with the relaxed flow of single "Cha Cha Cha" becoming her first top-40 R&B single (#35) as well as going all the way to #1 on their Rap Singles chart for two weeks. Also, the Eyes On This album went to #8 on the R&B albums chart (her highest rank and only top ten set to date) and the first to make the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart at #86.
For the new decade MC Lyte came back in 1991 with her third effort, Act Like You Know, which kept up her momentum from the previous record. Three singles reached the R&B chart, with second release "Poor Georgie" not only almost making the top ten at #11, but claiming Lyte's first pop Hot 100 appearance at #83, as well as another Rap Singles #1. (Trust, this single is the best thing she's ever recorded.) After contributing a track to the Mo Money soundtrack, "Ice Cream Dream", which was a moderate Rap singles hit (#11), Lyte returned in 1993 with her Ain't No Other album. The first single, "Ruffneck", written by MC Lyte with producers Aqul Davidson and Markell Riley from Wreckx-N-Effect ("Rump Shaker") along with Walter Scott rode on a Pete Rock and CL Smooth sample and displayed Lyte's desire for what Rihanna calls now a "Rude Boy"...
"Ruffneck" became MC Lyte's first top-40 pop hit in October of 1993. The song also climbed to #10 on Billboard's R&B chart (her first top ten effort), and nabbed her the third #1 on the Rap Singles Chart. Internationally, the single was Lyte's first minor hit in the UK at #67. At the Grammy Awards in 1994, "Ruffneck" was nominated for Rap Solo Performance, the first for a solo woman, although she was beat out by Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride". Lyte's follow-up single was the laid-back "I Go On", which missed the pop chart entirely and was a minor R&B hit at #68.
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Here's Lyte on Arsenio Hall...
and live on Yo MTV Raps on MTV...
And finally, from a concert last year...
Up tomorrow: British metal masters so a bit soft as they backpedal.
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