MC Lyte: The rap veteran dishes on new music, Steve Wonder collaboration and her first record deal

It’s safe to say rap veteran MC Lyte has plenty to talk about in 2024. With decades of contributions to her name, the hip-hop pioneer pulled through for a chat with Audacy to dish on everything from her music roots and epic collaborations to how her body pumps The Culture.

It’s all in the footage but definitely check out some key quotes from the ‘Audacy Check In’ conversation with fellow rap pioneer DJ Scratch.

Her first record deal, how she had to ask her mom's permission to attend the meeting [02:45] - "[My friend] called me one day while I was in high school, and he asked me, did I want to go meet a record label that was looking for a female MC And I was like, sure - of course I had to ask my mom. And literally, the decision as to whether it would happen or not was all hers. Because she had to allow me to get on the Staten Island ferry to go to Staten Island..."

Her acting career, her first role, why she turned down a role in a horror film, enrolling in acting school [06:10] - "I wasn't ready, you know, and there are some things in life that you can just systematically do, and it works out okay. But there are certain things that you must prepare for. And if no one ever says, 'You need to prepare,' you might even think that you're cool enough to just walk in there and, and do it and do it well. And that was not the case with acting... I didn't have no business in that movie anyway. It was like ['A Nightmare on Elm Street']. It was like one of them scary movies, which I don't really like. And, now that I can sort of pick and choose what I want, they know I don't do goblins ghosts, I don't do draculas, werewolves. I don't mess around with any of that kind of stuff... Anyway, I wasn't prepared. So, I decided to move to LA and get into acting class..."

How the love for Hip-Hop is still embedded in her [09:50] - "I didn't even know that the love for Hip-Hop was still embedded in me the way that it is. And it was sparked, and because of that, I got into a real zone about what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it, what I wanted to say it on, [and] who I wanted to say it with. It just became laser-focused. And it hadn't been that way for a while because life, you know, I'm trying to do this and that and that, and broadening the business. And, so it is easy to take your eyes off of something that means so much to you when you have all of these other things going as well as distractions. And so once I was able to sit down and get it going, I just was really excited..."

Artist on her new album she was excited she got to work with: Stevie Wonder [10:35] - "[Stevie] said, 'Okay, y'all could come down. I'm gonna do it.' So we went down to the studio, and he was in the middle of recording a song for himself, which was fantastic. So we were waiting, and then after that, he had to eat. We waited through him eating, went back into the studio, and he says, 'I think I'm gonna do it tomorrow.' I was like, 'What?!' I was like, 'He had us come all the way down.' Okay - you gotta just be grateful to be in the room. And so we left. And then the following day I was like, 'Is he gonna do this?' You know, so I hit Warryn up all, can you find out if he's gonna do it? 'Oh, I forgot to call you. He did it already. And he sent it to me.' I was like, 'Thanks. I'm over here sweating,' because we're at the ninth hour. But yeah, he did it and he also played a harmonica at the end. And, you know, he's such a sweet and loving guy."

More from the interview -
[01:25] - First exposure to Hip-Hop
[04:10] - Story of recording "I Cram to Understand U," how long it took to make first album
[05:20] - "Greatest" lists, owes her storytelling to Slick Rick and Melle Mel
[08:30] - How she got into doing voiceovers