It’s About Time for Some Pure Rhyme

Hip-hop’s thematic emphasis on materialistic spoils has all but banished rap’s more original and wide-ranging lyricists. That might change with Rah Digga’s debut album (due in stores Tuesday), an 18-song collection that reasserts the appeal and value of pure verbal acrobatics.

The husky-voiced, New Jersey-based artist, who recorded with the Fugees in 1996 and is a member of the Busta Rhymes-helmed Flipmode Squad, makes most of her points with her humorous punch lines. Where Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown and like-minded female rappers raise eyebrows with racy sexual themes, Digga grabs your attention with her wit and humor. On her underground hit “Tight,” she declares that her rhyme skills are “hotter than the region of Ghana,” and on the bare-bones “What They Call Me,” she proclaims, “I be next to rep like Al Gore.”

Digga injects only smidgens of social commentary and inspirational verse into her work, but she doesn’t need to be a crusader to accomplish her mission as an entertainer. The beats backing Digga are dramatic and cinematic, adding force to her hard-hitting rhymes. But the album’s lengthy interludes--a trademark of Busta Rhymes-assisted projects--are unnecessary and interrupt the record’s flow.

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