Unfucwitable Lyrical Murderer - Lady of Rage Playlist

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Lady of Rage has become one of my favorite rappers.  In the course of writing about Necessary Roughness, I also listened to as many of her features on other artists' records as I could find.  The below playlist is not in the least all-encompassing, but is a fun mix of songs that Rage appears on.  In the very least, you should listen to "Unfucwitable."  There is so much good packed into those three and a half minutes—from Premier's incredible turntablism to Rage's dense lyricism. This song manages to encapsulate just about everything that I find appealing about hip-hop.  Enjoy!

Lady of Rage's "Necessary Roughness"

Sometimes it feels like hip-hop is a sausage party.  When the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time to you non-rap nerds) conversation comes up, it is inevitably dominated by male artists.  Rappers, producers, heads of labels - these populations are largely made up of dudes.  In preparation for this post, I asked a friend of mine to name me five female MCs off the top of his head and he was able to do so with ease.  I then asked him to name five female MCs that he actually listened to and he was stumped.  Not to single my pal out here—when I posed the second question to myself, I couldn’t come up with five female rappers that I listen to either and I listen to a lot of rap with a wide variety of styles.  This is not to say that my friend or I have anything against women rappers; personally, I greatly appreciate a talented woman MC and always find it a treat when say, Jean Grae pops up on my iTunes.  This fascination with my own personal lack of exposure to female rappers came to a head last week as I was listening to Tha Dogg Pound (and consequently The Chronic and Doggystyle) and I realized that my favorite songs—quite possibly my favorite verses—were contributed by the Lady of Rage.  I decided to listen to her first and sadly only album, Necessary Roughness, and I’m especially happy that I did.  It now ranks among my favorite hip-hop albums and Lady of Rage is now one of my favorite rappers.