Rhino's 2001 collection The Very Best of MC Lyte is an excellent summary of MC Lyte's recordings for Atlantic records. The collection balances her career quite nimbly, with four tracks from her 1988 debut Lyte As a Rock, five from 1989's Eyes on This, three from 1991's
Act Like You Know, two from
Ain't No Other, and one from
Bad As I Wanna B, with her guest appearance on Foster/McElroy's "Dr. Soul," and the Bad Boy remix "Cold Rock a Party" rounding out the compilation for good measure. The decreasing returns from each subsequent album signals that MC Lyte's material did dip as the '90s wore on, but this does contain credible highlights from those records, while her hardcore golden-age recordings -- "10% Dis," "I Cram to Understand U," "Kickin' 4 Brooklyn," "Cha Cha Cha," "I Am the Lyte," "Shut the Eff Up! (Hoe)" -- still stand as fresh, powerful hip-hop. The first two records still hold their own, but this is a very good sampler and introduction in its own right. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine