EXCLUSIVE: MC Lyte Confirms New Album Coming In August—First In Nearly A Decade

MC Lyte dropped some news on MC Sha-Rock and Grandmaster Caz during a recent episode of their Rock The Bells show, “That’s The Joint.” The Lyte as a Rock MC appeared on the show Friday (May 10) and casually mentioned her first album in nearly a decade will be released this summer.

“I got a new record,” Lyte said. “I’m working on it right now. The new single is out. It’s ‘Woman.’ The new record is coming. We’ll have another single coming in June for Black Music Month, which is going to be spectacular. Of course, I’ve got some winning folks on this album, now I gotta talk to Major.”

MC Sha-Rock asked for clarification after assuming she was just talking about a single here and there. MC Lyte then confirmed, “The album comes out August 9 and the next single comes out June 9.”

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The forthcoming album will serve as the follow-up to 2015’s Legend and MC Lyte’s ninth studio album overall. The Brooklyn native began her career in 1988 with the release of Lyte as a Rock, which included production from Audio Two, Prince Paul, King of Chill and Alliance. The project—the first full-length from a female MC—debuted at No. 63 on the Top Black Albums chart and peaked at No. 50, spending more than 16 weeks on the chart.

Singles included “I Cram to Understand U,” “10% Dis,” “Paper Thin” and the title track. Her second album,  Eyes On This, made history in 1989, when it became the first by a female solo rapper to appear on the Billboard 200.

Since then, MC Lyte’s career has blossomed into her own enterprise. She’s not only an artist but also an actress, businesses woman, DJ, speaker and philanthropist. In a recent interview with AllHipHop, she talked about how Nas and LL COOL J challenged her to make new music, including “Woman.”

“It was so big brotherly,” she said. “It was like, ‘Stop being scared, put out some new music.’ And I don’t know that I was scared so much as worried about the right timing. Because I don’t want to do it just to do it. I want to have some skin in the game and really have something to say. And you want to be heard and you don’t care who hears it.”

Listen to “Woman” featuring Big Daddy Kane, Salt and Raheem DeVaughn below.