MC Lyte is focused. Sitting in the lounge of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, her striped business suit starched and cut perfectly, she’s poised and articulate as she elaborates upon the ideas she’s been spreading for the past few days at Spelman College’s Hip Hop Week. Her message is simple—it’s time to cut the bullshit and reclaim Hip Hop. Nearly 18 years after she first entered the game via her classic debut album, Lyte as a Rock, she’s not only come full circle but discovered a new calling—a vision that pokes at the consciousness of even the most detached Hip Hop fans. Traveling across the country, encouraging women and explaining why we as a community must re-discover the most precious elements of Hip Hop, Lyte’s wisdom and quiet enthusiasm is contagious. With a new album due out next year and book of poetry, “Just My Take” in stores now, her voice is as powerful as ever, and she won’t be silenced by anyone.

Why’d you decide to initiate Hip Hop Week at Spelman?

I visited Spelman back in March for the Take Back the Music Festival which was a town hall meeting that Essence and Spelman had put together because Spelman took such a huge stand in not allowing certain artists on their campus because of songs and images that were begin pushed forth through their music and at the panel one of young girls got up and asked, “we love hip hop and we love the men in hip hop why do they hate us so much, what have we done to them?” The question came from such a pure place, she just wanted to know what did we do wrong to be treated this way and be called these names and I just felt like maybe there should be some type of dialogue that goes back and forth so that students at Spelman could gain some understanding why the turn in Hip Hop has occurred.

Do you anticipate this being a yearly event?

An annual event would be great, we even yesterday began to talk about what could take place next year that could be different from this year.

Hip Hop Week was dedicated to celebrating the life of C. Delores Tucker who we all know back in the mid-90s took a stand against “gangster rap.” She took a lot of flak for that at the time from the Hip Hop community.

Right…

Is it ironic to you that now we’re celebrating her life at a Hip Hop event and that a lot of the Hip Hop community has come around since her passing and said, ‘okay, we see where she was coming from’?

I think there is no easy way and her going after the record labels was probably the smartest way to do it. However, the record labels at that point begin to talk to the artists and the artists feel like they have to take a stand because it’s their music. But I think she had the right idea as far as just being unacceptable. Now how to go about changing the course, I’m not sure how that should be done. I personally think it’s to go after the minds of the youth and have them change their minds as to what is entertaining. Only at that point will the message be felt. Continued on page 2 »