"..comin' to the floor, I be next to rep like Al Gore..."
Yes, I fell for it. Hook, line and sinker all in one. The Flipmode Squad was damn near the only thing (next to Wu-Tang) that I was checking for. Probably damn near the best dynasty skillwise, Flipmode Squad seemed to have all of it in spades: the dope yet insane rhymer in Busta Rhymes, the certified hypeman who could actually rap decent in Spliff Star, the dark voiced and epic sounding Lord Have Mercy, Roc Marciano who was definitely a great no-frills emcee, and Rampage the Last Boyscout, whose rhyming seemed staggered and well spaced out. But then came the self-proclaimed first lady of Flipmode, and none were more excited than me when Rah Digga stepped out for this solo outing.
Maybe it wasn't as well lauded as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but in terms of skill and wit, Rah Digga was pretty much the only other mainstream female emcee who matched pound for pound with Lauryn back in those days. Now that may seem like a bold statement and I may alienate a lot of my peers as a result, but you could say that folks like MC Lyte, Rah Digga, and Lauryn Hill were in a large part responsible for some of the dopest new female talent that rap has encountered. Today's Take Three, my column in which I reduce dope albums or otherwise to three cuts and let you, the listener/consumer make your determination, is all about Rah Digga's debut album, Dirty Harriet. First one of the new year too! Check it out after the jump.
