page_title: MC Lyte
section_title: Musical career
hierarchical_section_title: MC Lyte / Musical career
caption_attribution_description: MC Lyte at the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. October 14, 2007. Photo by Travis Hudgons/PictureAtlanta.Net
context_page_description: Lana Michele Moorer, better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is a Grammy–nominated American rapper, DJ, actress and entrepreneur.
  Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, Lyte first gained fame in the late 1980s, becoming the first solo female rapper to release a full album with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock. She released a total of 8 solo studio albums and an EP with Almost September.
  With songs like Cha Cha Cha, Paper Thin, Ruffneck and Poor Georgie she has influenced the work of later female rap figures such as Lil Kim, Da Brat, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill and Eve, among others. She has also collaborated with artists like Sinéad O'Connor, Janet Jackson, Brandy, Xscape, P. Diddy, Will Smith and Beyoncé.
  MC Lyte was recognized for her career with the VH-1 Hip Hop Honors and BET Hip Hop Awards "I Am Hip Hop" Icon Lifetime Achievement. Also About.com was ranked No. 26 on their list of the 50 best MCs of our timeand No. 6 in the Greatest Rappers Ever survey organized by NME.
context_section_description: At age 17 in 1988, she released her single debut, "I Cram to Understand U (Sam)," about drug addiction and its impact on relationships, being one of the first songs written about the crack era. She was 12 years old at the time she wrote the song. Lyte was also featured in the remix and music video of "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, which debuted in May 1988 on MTV.
  In September 1988, she released her first album, Lyte as a Rock, with which she became the first female solo rapper to release a full album. In addition to "I Cram to Understand U (Sam)", the album featured songs like "Paper Thin," its title track, and the diss track "10% Dis," a response to then-Hurby Azor associate Antoinette. Despite not having a great commercial performance, it is considered one of the best and most important rap albums, both in the 80s and in history.
  Less than a year and a half later, Lyte followed her debut album with the 1989's album Eyes on This. This album, like its predecessor, received a great critical reception and is recognized as a hip hop classic. This album featured the hit single "Cha Cha Cha" (which spent 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles, peaking at # 1), the socially conscious "Capuccino," and a new diss track to her rival Antoniette, "Shut the Eff Up! (Hoe)." At the beginning of that same year, Lyte joined Stop the Violence Movement with Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy and Heavy D, among others. Together they released the single "Self Destruction" in response to violence in the hip hop and African American communities. The song debuted at No. 1 on the first week of Billboard's Hot Rap Songs existence and the proceeds were donated to the National Urban League.
  In 1990 she became the first rap artist to perform at Carnegie Hall.
  On May 1, 1991, Lyte performed on "Yo! Unplugged Rap", the first MTV Unplugged to feature rap artists, alongside A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and LL Cool J. In September 1991 Lyte released her third album, Act Like You Know, featuring a new jack swing sound. Even though singles "Poor Georgie" and "When in Love" peaked at # 1 and # 3 on the Hot Rap Singles respectively, the album fell in the charts, only peaking at #102 on the Billboard 200 and #14 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and reviews were generally mixed. That year she also participated in the socially conscious single "Heal Yourself" by the collective "HEAL Human Education Against Lies", which also included Big Daddy Kane, Boogie Down Productions, Run-DMC, Queen Latifah and LL Cool J.
  For 1992 she began work on her next album, titled Ain't No Other, released on June 22, 1993. On this album she returned to a more hardcore sound and had better critical and commercial performance. Following the single "Ruffneck," (her third song # 1 on the rap list, # 10 on the Hot R & B / Hip-Hop Songs and # 35 on the Billboard Hot 100), which sold half a million copies, she became the first female rapper to achieve gold certification as a solo artist, in addition to earning a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Rap Solo Performance category.
  Lyte collaborated on pop star hits like Janet Jackson's You Want This and Brandy's I Wanna Be Down alongside Queen Latifah and Yo-Yo. She also participated in the rap version of "Freedom" on the soundtrack for the movie Panther, alongside Meshell Ndegeocello, Patra, Yo-Yo, Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa  and   Left Eye  Lopes of  TLC.
  In August 1996, after signing with Elektra Records affiliate East West, Lyte released the fifth album of her career, Bad as I Wanna B. With a sound more oriented to R&B and dance music, it became one of her most commercially successful albums. On this album she had the two most commercially successful singles of her career: "Keep On Keepin' On" featuring the R&B group Xscape (# 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and # 3 on Hot R & B / Hip-Hop Songs and # 27 on the UK Singles Chart) and the Puff Daddy remix of his song "Cold Rock a Party", (# 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, her fourth # 1 on the Hot Rap Songs chart and # 14 in the UK between other charts in Europe), f
caption: Lyte at the October 14, 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards
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